


History's Tale

by dewa95



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Gen, Haru is a good cook, Insomnia, M/M, Sleepless Sasuke, Time Travel, he makes good coffee, non massacre au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-04
Updated: 2018-04-10
Packaged: 2018-05-31 02:58:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 22,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6452767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dewa95/pseuds/dewa95
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Fourth Hokage sat contemplating the events of 7 years ago, thinking for more than once that the man should have died that time. And he would have had it not been for a man, no, a child who stood in the path of a certain Death to protect him and his family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I'm supposed to be studying and writing a twenty page report but I couldn't concentrate on studying due to this plot bunny and needed to let it out. Slow updates because I'm supposed to be studying....:(

The Fourth Hokage if asked would describe his life to be completely fulfilled. There was a sense of contentment around the man that the enemy swore was more dangerous than his anger, as evidenced by the little Hyuuga incident five years ago. But that was the story for another day, another time.

Today, the man was sitting behind his desk contemplating the paperwork with a look that could only be described as exasperation and mild boredom. The fourth being the very diligent man he is, always completes his paperwork like a good little Hokage should. He really, really did! But today, the normally cheerful man who would so quickly smile for his people was stuck behind a desk he did not want to stay behind!

Whoever knew that the Hokage’s position was nothing but a glorified desk job? This Chair had to come with a warning of “Beware this Position can eat away at your patience faster than you can say Hokage.”

The main reason for this would be the chaos reining the village. Chaos that would usually make him feel content and happy was today making him feel restless behind his desk. He felt the stirrings of a nervous static in the air, the tension slowly mounting even though he knew that everything was alright. But he didn’t dare disregard the feeling. You did not survive a war by ignoring your survival instincts. So, he slowly prepared himself for listening to news that might soon rock his world.

He channelled the slightest amount of his chakra to his ears and listened in on the village not at all bothering with trivial things like privacy; it is not usually considered eavesdropping if you were doing it on your family to keep them safe, or so Minato reasoned anyway.

He could now hear the terrified screams of Root’s ANBU who were just integrated into the normal ANBU a few years ago, with Kushina’s own devious cackling trailing behind. Really Kushina was the best when it came to reconditioning the ROOT’s training. Her pranks brought out emotions in other people faster than Naruto could empty a ramen bowl.

Thinking of his adorable little son, made him focus in on his son’s own evil cackling. Minato sighed, as that would only explain that his adorable little child was once again out with his equally adorable and equally devious little best friend, the Uchiha clan’s Littlest Prince. He could hear their excited yells and patter- patter of their little feet as they ran from an exasperated villager who swore to spank the boys when he caught them. Not that they could, Minato thought resignedly. Naruto was Minato’s and Kushina’s, speed was basically written into his genes and Sasuke was being trained in the speed department by none other than Shunshin no Shisui. The older brat had learned of their little habit of pranking the villagers and had taken it upon himself to make sure that Sasuke was never caught. Seriously those two could give Kushina a run for her money when it came to pranking what with Naruto’s inventive ideas and Sasuke’s perfect execution of them, (Woe be the day they actually taught Naruto sealing, Minato shuddered. Everyone who knew Kushina and Naruto had vetoed teaching Naruto anything about sealing until his graduation which was four and half years away.) The village wide prankathon the three had started three months ago had actually scarred his precious ANBU for life. But even if the kids did get caught once or twice, the other villagers would never let anything happen to them the golden duo of Konoha, neither would the ANBU that always followed them around.

He smiled at Sasuke’s laughter; that boy was such a good influence on Naruto’s academics. Not that Naruto was a bad influence, his child had managed to coax the little Uchiha out of his shell and now Sasuke had a good number of friends in the village, something Itachi and Mikoto were very happy to note (even Fugaku was, _secretly_ , of course!) Who knew the sweet little innocent Prince of the Uchiha actually had a devious streak that ran a mile deep. The looks on the faces of the people when the little devils made their first huge prank was something he would never forget. He chuckled remembering Fugaku’s expression, he had been sure the man would have an aneurism. But surprisingly he barely even scolded Sasuke for the prank he pulled. And Minato was _very_ sure that the little Prince’s widened doe-eyed, _innocent_ stare had _nothing_ to do with it.

Minato was pulled out of his thoughts as felt someone coming to his room. He took a pen into his hands and made sure to look like he wasn’t slacking at all. No, he wasn’t slacking, nuh uh, he was merely paying attention to the villagers for their own safety.

The door opened to reveal Nara Shikaku, his best friend and the commander of the Jounin. He slumped from his studious position onto the desk looking miserable, a sight Minato would only present to a handful of people in the Village. Shikaku for his part merely smirked in the usually irritating way only a Nara could.

“Slacking, Hokage-sama?” Shikaku teased, his eyes were however dancing with such mirth that ultimately caused Minato to throw his pen at him. Shikaku’s shadow however neatly caught the pen before it hit him. He rose an eyebrow at Minato’s reaction, knowing that the man would usually just laugh it off.

“Bad day?” he asked quietly, soon after taking in the stacks of paper that sat nearly untouched.

“Bad instincts,” Minato muttered.

The other eyebrow on Shikaku’s head joined the first.

“Do I even want to know? Or is it too troublesome to bother listening to?” the head of the Nara asked, taking his seat across Minato.

“Just a feeling,” the Fourth Hokage muttered, looking away.

“A feeling, huh, too troublesome,” Shikaku said quietly, his eyes already half-lidded, coming up with various plans and scenarios he could think of.

“Something big is coming Shikaku, this is the second time it has happened in nearly eight years.”

“The first being _that_ day, Kushina’s near death and your own deteriorating condition I assume. You know, none of us truly know what happened that night, the Kyuubi was mad with bloodlust, killing people one minute and gone the next. I am sure Kakashi knows but no one says a damn thing about what had happened that night. Is it really so big that you can’t even trust me with? After all, I am quite sure that Fugaku knows what happened.”

Shikaku, Minato knew, was not angry or resentful for that. He was merely curious as to why Minato had easily trusted the information with the stoic Uchiha clan head. A few years ago, Shikaku would have called the man suspicious but now watching the way his entire family sometimes ganged up on him gave Shikaku a whole new level respect for his fellow clan head, thanking everyone above for not granting Shikaku with two devious children and wife who could very well be scarier than his Yoshino.  He didn’t envy the man in the least but he did sympathize with him. The day Danzo was exiled from Konoha after the evidence Minato had had secretly gathered, Shikaku was fairly sure the Uchiha had held a celebration in their clan compound. Who could blame them after everything they’d had to endure because of the man’s machinations (the stolen Sharingan was something the Uchiha never forgave anyone for, except maybe Kakashi as his Sharingan had been a gift to the boy. But that too only happened after Fugaku thoroughly examined and came to know the young man more). Sure Danzo had done a lot for the village but Shikaku was definitely surer that such kind of machinations would only lead to more destruction rather than peace.

Now the Clan meetings were quite fun to have. Fugaku’s dry humor was always something to look forward to, that and Hiashi’s twitching eyebrow every time Fugaku said something in that deadpan voice of his, aimed as a barb at Hashi. It was mostly harmless fun.

So lost was Shikaku in his thoughts that he barely noticed the youngest speedster of Konoha flickering into the room, looking all sorts of agitated.

“Shisui-kun, everything alright?” Minato asked quickly, looking concerned, standing up and making his way to the panting Uchiha.

“Hai, Hokage-sama, just give me a second, I’ll explain everything!”

He took a deep breath, kept it in for about thirty seconds before expelling it in a loud whoosh of air. He closed his eyes before explaining quickly:

“On the mission, Kakashi-senpai, Itachi and I were a part of, we encountered traces of subject Savior-“ and a bright yellow flash appeared in the middle of the room where the Hokage was supposed to be. Shikaku looked surprised at Minato’s sudden disappearance although the Uchiha boy who had come to deliver the news did not look surprised in the least

Shisui shook his head and swore quietly under his breath and muttered something that suspiciously sounded like ‘hadn’t even listened to what I had to say’ under his breath.

“Subject Savior?” Shikaku asked, curiosity now piqued.

“Oh hey, Shikaku-san, I didn’t notice you there!” the boy greeted cheerfully trying his best to evade the question. Shikaku merely looked unimpressed at the boy’s rather pathetic attempt at misdirection but for once conceded. He already had a few suspicions as to what might have happened and the Subject Savior only solidified certain theories he had of the day the Kyuubi was defeated.

“I am sorry Shikaku-sama, but Subject Savior is an S-rank secret that only the Hokage can divulge. Also I need to get going to the hospital and make sure this thing goes off without a hitch, I need to inform Tsunade-sama at the earliest. We’re going to need the hospital anyway. So, later Shikaku-sama.,” the boy explained quietly before disappearing in his trademark body flicker.

Who’s going to need the hospital? Itachi, Kakashi, Minato or- And then Shikaku knew that this was what Minato had feared was coming. As to who or what the Subject Savior was Shikaku did not know, but he was sure of one thing, Konohagakure no sato would never be the same after this day.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for receiving this story so well and hope you people continue reading it.

Life in Konoha was quite normal these days. The civilians moved about selling their goods and took care of their businesses, and overall people were very happy. The genin in the village were meandering about running after cats, painting fences and doing all types of meaningless typically mind numbing jobs that gave the older shinobi well deserved humor breaks.

The chuunin were currently at work bustling about around the village doing their assigned jobs, not slacking in the least. The jounin in the village ambled about having no immediate missions to complete. Most would sit in the fast-food joints, gossiping like old women. If there was one thing that held true about any shinobi village was that the ninja were worse gossips than the old civilian women and that was saying something. ANBU ran, easily patrolling the village looking bored behind their masks about the inaction in times of peace. Not that anyone would want another war, it was just they wanted to _do_ something other than patrol the village. Even signing up for guard duty of the troublesome duo seemed better, because those shinobi at least got to apply their minds to _something_ other than run around the village in a mind-numbing routine. Ask any ANBU and they would tell you just how quickly that got _old_!

However, one simple incident ran round and round in all their minds. Most of the Shinobi and Kunoichi would snicker out of nowhere and their insanity could be blamed to the above mentioned incident which happened a week ago.

The official story was that Yondaime-sama had gotten so bored of all the paperwork that he left the village without permission or following any protocol. And the minute he came back there were flashes of the Yondaime all over the village as he got chased around by his wife, who refused to listen to reason. The reports then stated that the Yondaime had played dirty by hiding behind his seven year old son and in one smooth move had kissed the red-headed woman in a shameless PDA (according to the stuck up ninja in the village) and had later whispered something that made _Kushina–sama_ blush and nod, and then the both of them were gone. Poor Naruto who went ignored by his parents had stomped through the street and less than a day later there was an enormous very detailed prank that was directed at the ANBU of the village. (This was something the ANBU hated about the Yondaime's family. Any wrongdoing by the Yondaime and the ANBU in the village paid for it. Not that it happened very often.)

Every person in the village had different perspective over the Yondaime's disappearance and his subsequent reappearance and the following incidents. The Genin and children of the village thought it was quite funny to watch their adored dorky leader get chased by the red-headed woman. The chunin enjoyed the show and wondered if they would ever be allowed to slack off and get away with their duties and tried to not see the obvious implications for they did not want headaches. Although some chunin suspected something big was at play. The jounin of the village knew there was something wrong but most of them ignored it hoping they would be wrong. The ANBU definitely knew something was wrong but unlike the jounin could not ignore the feeling as their arms throbbed with the feel of their Kage's killing intent. The people who knew the most though would be the Clan Council.

The skilled members of the hospital staff watched several henged, indistinguishable members stroll through the hospital throughout the week. What only Tsunade-sama and her apprentice knew was that the top floor of the hospital which was usually reserved for high-end suspects and guests was now occupied by a person who looked to be about 20 years old: A twenty year old male with the worst case of poisoning and some of the most gruesome burns to ever be witnessed on a person.

Senju Tsunade watched the everyday goings-on in the village out of her window and looked at the deceptive peace that held the village in its arms. The peace which would be shattered to its last fiber the second the boy's involvement in the Kyuubi's attack makes itself known. Even if the boy had saved the life of their beloved Yondaime and his wife, they would definitely fear the person who could very well control a Bijuu. That was the fickle thing about the human mind. You fear anything you don't understand, Tsunade thought to herself. The boy had put up an impressive fight against his injuries but the true victory over that battle happened only after his admittance into Tsunade's tender care.

_The poison was unlike anything even Tsunade had seen. It was something she would bet her finest sake bottle on, that even Orochimaru, her idiot-ex-teammate-of-a-missing-nin and poison expert extraordinaire would deny having ever seen. By all possible counts the boy should have been dead already! But there he was on the top level of the hospital breathing. That boy had an impressive resistance against poisons, as impressive as Orochimaru's own. The second Minato had brought the male back to the hospital, Tsunade had very quickly diagnosed his condition. There were multiple contusions, a little internal bleeding, a liver that had swollen to the size of a balloon, a fractured thigh bone and a punctured lung. In all her medical career Tsunade had always known what to do when a patient was brought in, but after seeing the boy she knew she had no idea where to start._

_It took the Hatake brat's yelling for her to decide. She quickly removed as much poison she could from the boy's body; it took about to 20 minutes to remove an exact amount of 97 percent. Her apprentice, Shizune, then started on healing the boy's liver and that took about an hour to restore its shape to at least 50 percent of its natural size, and restore its function to a minimum of 45 percent. The minute he was healed a little the boy had put up an impressive fight as his instincts probably screamed for him to get away from the others in the room, never mind the fact that he could barely move. It took Itachi and Kakashi to move in and pin him down, both being mindful of the person's injuries. A brief flare of their combined chakra seemed to freeze the boy and he'd surrendered without a hint of fight after. The boy had an impressive affinity to lightning though because even in a condition like that he'd managed to zap everyone who laid hands on him and that little zap had_ hurt _. Minato and Kushina had entered at some point during the fiasco and watched the situation with gaping mouths. It would have been funny to see Kushina gaping in any other situation._

_After that it was decided to bind the boy's chakra away to prevent future zapping sessions. And that earned a low animalistic growl from the boy- he was still awake? It was probably at that point that the Uchiha matriarch entered looking for all intents and purposes to be on a mission. She carefully laid her index finger onto the boy's forehead and whispered the word sleep. It actually worked, the boy had fallen asleep in less than a minute after that and that told Tsunade just how much of Mikoto's title as the Genjustsu Mistress was true. But credit went to the boy for being able to fight against it for a whole minute before succumbing to sleep. She then worked her chakra to heal the internal wounds silently urging Tsunade to resume healing as well; all the while Fugaku watched silently standing behind Itachi and Kakashi._

_Tsunade then proceeded to heal the burns- a good majority of them were on his chest. It was quite a surprise to see that there were none on his face though it was covered with matted dust filled dark hair. The burns as they turned out were easily removed and most of them hadn't even scarred. There was one particularly nasty injury on his left arm which would definitely scar, that Shizune. Later, Shizune took on the process of detangling the boy's hair which was long and surprisingly very thick. The long black locks were difficult to deal with and Shizune more or less complained about the entire thing for the next full hour, threatening to cut it off only to have Itachi and Mikoto turn a passive look at her that chilled her apprentice to the bone. The entire thing would have been funny were it not for their patient._

_The entire stabilizing process took about five whole hours and Tsunade was more than glad that she had another person who could share the burden with her and Shizune. The boy's internal injuries and broken bones were easy to deal with once the whole life threatening poison and liver conditions and infection causing burns were dealt with._

_It took Tsunade a second to realize that everyone in the room was staring at the boy and another complete minute to realize why. There was the boy who caused her trouble for five whole hours. The boy's, no man's- she had to call him that because he barely looked younger than Kakashi- face was for the first time dust free and blood free- and she had to bite back a gasp at how very much the boy resembled Uchiha Madara's picture._

_Uchiha Fugaku broke the silence in a deadpan tone, "Look at that, he's definitely an Uchiha ."_

_Six pairs of wide incredulous stared back at the man, when Tsunade broke through it first. "Thank you for that Captain Obvious. We've decided to hire you for the TV show 'why people never piss off an angry Kunoichi.'" She deadpanned._

_Fugaku barely even heard her as he moved forward and that seemed to be the cue because suddenly no one in the room could stand still. The boy had the pale complexion that only an Uchiha would, his long black tresses seemed to have a mind of their as they stuck up in all the sides even when Shizune fixed them half a minute ago. There was long scar running down the boy's left cheek, the injury would have surely taken his eye out but miraculously the eye was still there and healthy at that. Though the chakra pathways to the eyes were severely burnt; it would take atleast six months for a non- Uzumaki torecover from such extensive damage. She was very sure that it would be a month before the boy would literally be able to open his eyes without passing out from the pain. Tsunade wanted to get a more comprehensive study on the Uchiha's burnt eyes pathways and she wanted nothing more than to send the slightest bit of her chakra to his eyes and find out their fascinating secrets. The Uchiha's pathways would always be far more extensive than a Hyuuga, to sate her curiosity. But before she could a small hand stopped her._

_She turned to look at the owner of the hand and found the Heir to the Uchiha staring at her with an impassive expression._

_She raised an eyebrow at that, silently commending the Uchiha on not withering away like many of her subordinates, and quietly commanding to answer the question before she sent him through a wall._

" _Foreign chakra near an Uchiha's eyes will bring out a survival reaction," Kakashi explained. "That is the only reason behind his chakra flaring a while ago. You've got to be the most oblivious person Tsunade-sama."_

_The last satement earned Kakashi a glare and he hastily took a step back from her. But before Tsunade could deal any damage to the wayward grumpy and now idiotic student of the Yondaime, Kushina spoke up, "Mikoto, he has additional pathways to his eyes."_

_That lilting statement had everyone turning to stare at the Head Medic._

" _Extra pathways like Shihsui's, Kakashi-senpai's and mine?" Itachi asked, politely._

" _No. He has a few extra ones in addition to the ones I've seen active in you," Tsunade muttered. "This Kid is going to be just as troublesome as the other Uchiha."_

_The statement was simply one to tease the Uchiha present in the room instead of trying to offend them. Fugaku smirked and said, "only a Senju would find an Uchiha troublesome."_

Tsunade took a sake bottle from her cabinet and quickly drank from it before her apprentice and long time companion Shizune came to get her to the meeting. Ugh another meeting with the juvenile clan heads! On second thought Tsunade drank as much as she could from the bottle, sake was the only thing that would keep her sane during that meeting.

! #$%&^&%$# !

The Yondaime was currently presiding over a Clan meeting- which in other words only meant that he, the Yondaime Hokage, was playing the role of glorified babysitter to a bunch of attention-craving, overgrown toddlers. But the current issue and the reason for the meeting to actually take place because of their mysterious subject Savior and his blatant disregard for SOP. The thing they were discussing at the moment had less to do with the boy and more to do with his disappearance.

Most of the Clan Heads had already been to visit the young adult. Minato, for his part, was trying his best, to calm the pool of children gathered there, but all his efforts fell on rather deaf ears thanks to the loud voices of the people in the room.

His well-known patience was quickly dwindling- to the point where he was considering the consequences of the murder of every single Clan Head. It was quite easy to see if one would simply look at their beloved Yondaime. Not even Naruto's pranks left him with such low levels of patience. But that was to be expected considering the circumstances. The Yondaime had been on edge ever since the mysterious man was brought back. What they were discussing- the politest word for, arguing like kids, Minato could find at the moment- was what to do with the person.

When a particularly loud growl erupted from the Inuzuka Clan Head, Minato finally decided that he'd had enough of the fuss and let his killing intent slowly fill the room. The sudden chill of the normally warm chakra of the Hokage had nearly everyone in the room gasping and turning to the source.

There were only a few people, namely Fugaku, Inoichi, Kushina and Tsunade,, who remained calm in the sudden threat of the Yondaime's chakra. These people had all somehow been in contact with the man, unconscious he may be, that they were deciding the fate of.

"Are you done squabbling like the children you are?" the Yondaime's smooth dangerous alto sounded. This was the man who slaughtered hundreds of Iwa men in the Third War. This was the man who was responsible for their victory in that war, and this was the man they were never ever supposed to piss off - which they had, spectacularly so.

When no voice rose, the Yondaime continued, "Since you are done, let us discuss this like adults and make a decision before my child decides that I haven't been paying much attention to him and starts another prank-a-thon with the cute devil prince from the Uchiha clan."

Everyone blanched at that thought, while Kushina just smirked as if the thought of another prank war had her blood pumping even more fiercely.

Fugaku's eye twitched at hearing his son being addressed in such an informal, disrespectful manner but he knew the Yondaime was right. The two of them were a bad combo to the Uchiha police who were the ones who usually cleaned up the messes the brats created. The last mess from the impromptu war took about two weeks to clean and that was saying something.

"Inoichi, now that everyones' stopped behaving like kids tell us what you found from the mind-walk? I've asked you to keep your own counsel until we all met and now I'd like to know."

Inoichi looked like the prey of a hunter-nin for a second and looked too dazed to answer. In fact he'd been behaving that way for the past few ever since he took a trip into the man's mind.

"Inoichi? The council's waiting and- would you like more time to think about how you want to phrase this?" Yondaime asked.

A slow nod, and if people were worried about the sudden appearance of another Uchiha they were even more worried now. Minato sighed thinking of how spectacularly things were going in the meeting. He shook his head from the morbid thoughts and focused on the woman who'd healed a majority of the Subject's injuries.

"Tsunade-sama if you can please describe his injuries and his possible power level?" Minato prompted.

"Oh I will, you little brat! Kushina dear, promise me you'll buy me a drink after this wretched meeting. I have a very bad feeling I might need it."

"I'm gonna Mikoto too, don't worry you old Hag. We'll drink as much as we want onc this stupid meeting is done with."

The head Medic was obviously drunk and to Minato's total surprise, none of the Clan Heads seemed extremely surprised at seeing her drunk. But still Minato was the Hokage, so he had to at least try and curb the behavior.

"Tsunade-sama! Kushina!"

"Oh, hush, Minato! We've been through a lot in the past few days. Do you know just how much of a troublemaker your son is?"

"Oh now he's my son?! I can quote you at least ten times from the last twenty days only, about how talented your son is at pranking!"

"Okay, okay. Here we go," Tsunade began before the Hokage and the Clan Head could start a lovers' spat right in front of them all. So she continued:" The Subject was brought to the hospital a week ago at 1825 hours by our beloved Yondaime himself. Upon first glance it was not apparent that the man was Uchiha and it was very apparent that the man had severe injuries, the injuries the likes of which would have killed any other ninja."

"He had several life threatening injuries, the likes of which I'm not going to bore you with. If you want to know, you can read this report here. Though I'm sure most of you know what he's been through from the time you've spent staring at him through the glass in my hospital. But I will say this that boy is as stubborn as Kushina herself here."

"His chest was covered with burns and his liver was swollen to the size of let's say Minato rasengan because of all the work it did to neutralize the poison that was running in his system. Poison which should have killed him but there he is lying on the hospital bed hooked up to several tubes recovering."

"As for what I've observed of his chakra network: The boy has a very high affinity to lightning chakra, could almost rival Kakashi's as he tried to nearly destroy our nerves after we observed a panic attack he seemed to have at his condition. His chakra pathways are very well developed and his chakra reserves could rival any elite Jounin's."

Silence settled in the room heavily like a suffocating blanket, when Inoichi spoke, startling everyone in the room with his unusually quiet voice which unnerved the Clan Heads and the Hokage even more.

"His mind is a very….. disturbing?... no…. how do i put it?- a difficult and scary place to be in, that should describe it perfectly. He's obviously been tortured with torture genjutsu before more than once if you ask me, so much so that it shattered his normal mindscape- and his memories float about in the mind without restrain. There's a big door in the end, a door made of solid substance, something I know cannot be broken by any of my mind jutsu, not that I tried especially hard. I was trying to be mindful of the injuries his mind sustained. The overall feel of his mind was one of deepest grief I've ever seen in any person, the kind of grief that a person can only experience after losing everything. I didn't delve into any of his memories Minato; it seemed far too disrespectful and far too intimate."

Inoichi's voice was soft, tired and so heartbroken that Minato couldn't help but reconsider his decision to send him into the boy's mind.

"What do you think of him, Inoichi? Is he a threat?"

"I don't believe so, Minato. From the point of a psychologist what I think he needs is a stable place to recover. He has good potential to love the village as a whole. All he needs, I'm saying this as the head of T&I, is an ANBU team to monitor him for a month- like a probation. From my position as a father and the head of the clan all I think he needs is a family and a clan where he could grieve his losses."

Inoichi's words were met with an even more heavy silence than before. Inoichi who looked dazed at the beginning looked very determined in the end. His pale blue eyes shone with a determination to take care of the boy.

"If he is as you said that broken, then what is the possibility that he wouldn't attack anyone in the village? In that scenario would it not be better to simply eliminate the threat that the man poses?" Aburame Shibi stated quietly.

Before anyone could protest the thought, a firm voice took command of the room. "If it is your decision to eliminate Nii-san, then the second the orders are passed, I'll defect."

Itachi's threat rang rampant in the room. "We, I speak of the Uchiha as a whole, can care for Nii-san, and his position is with the rest of the Uchiha."

Fugaku hardly looked phased by his eldest son's threat. He looked oddly pleased by it, in fact. Itachi himself had a glint of steel in his eyes as he continued to scan the room for people to refute his decision.

"Please do not take offence Itachi-kun, I was merely thinking out loud and bringing out scenarios. I do believe we have enough people like Minato-sama, Kakashi-kun and several others if the need ever arises. I had not meant to offend you," Aburame whispered.

"I know you never meant it that way, Aburame-sama, but this question was bound to come up sooner or later-"

"You would risk treason, Itachi-kun?" Kushina asked softly. Everyone in the room knew just how much the Uchiha heir loved the village.

"This village was built upon the feelings of brotherhood and family, Kushina-sama. So of course I would for another family member."

The short reply had people's eyes widening.

Shikaku had been thoroughly enjoying the meeting for awhile until Minato decided to ruin by letting his killing intent out. He was the only one who noticed that unlike the other meetings where Kushina would be sitting right next to Minato, she was now sitting half the table away, causing Minato some unneeded misery. Usually whenever the people in this room behaved like kids Minato would very well ignore them all until they sorted their troubles by themselves. He would deliberately play footsie under the table with the Uzumaki clan Head looking extremely pleased. But today the man had out of habit tried to do the same and had instead poked Hiashi's leg which elicited a growl from the stoic man and a stunned, stupid laughter from Kushina; from there the entire meeting went downhill.

Tsunade's and Inoichi's accounts of the troubled young man in the hospital had shaken everyone, despite how well they tried to hide it. What shook them more was Itachi's blatant threat of leaving the village if they'd not given the man a chance to settle here, but it all had the desired effect. The Head of the Jounin knew that there was a lot the Hokage, Uchiha clan head and heir were not saying. Some of which: the boy had saved Minato's life and in turn saved Kushina's life seven years ago. Also Tsunade was wrong in her assumption of the boy just being of jounin level. The boy was clearly more than that as he'd been able to save Minato seven years ago. The boy who looked to be of the same age as Kakashi, then that meant the boy had to be fourteen years old when he saved Minato.

The boy's issue was definitely going to cause a lot of trouble if people found out what had happened during the Kyuubi's attack. They didn't even know the boy's name and if he knew where this was going which he surely does the boy was going to end up with the Uchiha, which could mean trouble for the clan in the future. Truth could never be hidden forever of course.

For now Shikaku merely decided to enjoy the peace of the moment; and the only way to prolong it if possible by beating his lazy son in shogi again after he went home. The peace it brings to his mind when he beats his son in shogi everyday and seeing his son trying to outmaneuver him, it was the only true way for a Nara to relax.

Inuzuka Tsume, for some reason, Shikaku thought, wanted to be a difficult woman that day. She had started muttering and growling unintelligibly under her throat. But for some reason her next words were quite clear and easily understood.

"It is all well and good that you want to give that pup a pack, you little brat. But what I want to know is how – no where he ended up coming from. How did a pup his age stray from the Uchiha in our village?"

That question, Shikaku knew, plagued the minds of every Clan Head ever since the beginning of the meeting, but nobody dared to mention a word about it, for some reason. The head of the Inuzuka leaned forward letting her face rest on the palm of her hand. She scratched the table slightly with her other hand, looking straight at the Yondaime demanding an answer to her question.

Minato seemed to deliberate for a second. He stared at the table in front of him and waited for the Uchiha clan head to answer the question but it seemed Fugaku wanted nothing to do with the question. The head of the Uchiha was staring out the window located next to him with the Heir closing his eyes in exasperation. Irritation at how the meeting seemed to be going on for hours with the promise of it never ending. Itachi could feel the ANBU shifting restlessly in the shadows of the room. He could feel just how irritated they were with this farce of a clan meeting. Granted clan meetings had never been that bad since Dnazo's exile and the council's 'unexpected demise', but today it was nothing more than that. Itachi sighed audibly. But no one paid him enough attention to comment on that, the ANBU did but their comments and vulgar suggestions of loosening up would come later. He shook his head a smile threatening to make an appearance. But he kept his cool because he needed to have Nii-san with him. The way he'd been found, Itachi shuddered inwardly, feeling a deep seated desire to protect the man, no Uchiha Haru. (That was the name the man had given him just before he passed out in the forest; not that anyone other than Uchiha Itachi knew that) Though he was not sure why he felt the need to protect a grown man who, he knew, had to be stronger than him. But just the thought of something happening to him had Itachi's heart palpitating. The only time he'd ever felt such pain was when he saw his baby brother struggling to breathe during the Kyuubi's attack years ago.

But for the question at hand Itachi knew the answer but decided that it was not necessary for the Council to know. It was something specific to the Clan and he was vaguely surprised that his father had not even uttered a word to answer the question choosing to let his gaze drift to the window, while he lazily ran circles on the table with a finger, his mind far away from the meeting.

Minato cleared his throat and answered in a solemn voice, "Where he comes from is an S-class secret, Tsume. I do believe that he will be the last stray Uchiha we ever pick up. I will however divulge his origins if the boy agrees to it."

Itachi flinched slightly at the word stray, but said nothing. His father glanced at the Yondaime and a silent conversation passed between them in the briefest of seconds. It was amazing to see how quickly Minato-sama's charismatic approach had integrated the Uchiha back into the village. It was quite a wonder truly, itachi thought. Itachi had been in peace ever since Danzo's exile and that peaceful feeling only escalated when the clan after a several years of ostracism had managed to form such heavy bonds with the rest of the village. Now, the Uchiha truly believed in the words, 'the Village was the Clan and the Clan was the Village.'

But Itachi could only find one thing wrong with the whole situation and that would be Sasuke. For a week Itachi had been extremely busy with guard duty of Nii-san and he hadn't had enough time to just sit with his brother and poke at his forehead. The last time Itachi had unknowingly avoided his brother due to his duty, Itachi found his entire ANBU team' s supplies swapped with that of blunted kunai of the academy. The pranks continued and after a certain time, the pranks went on getting and more and more bizarre and risky and idiotic to spend any time on, but Itachi would admit the pranks were good way to practice trap making. The pranks just screamed one thing, 'Aniki come back home already. I know you're here!'. His little brother wanted attention and he was quite willing to let the Village's Elite suffer the consequences and Itachi's commanding Officer had quite discreetly shoved Itachi out the building after the sixth bizarre prank.

Now he hadn't spent enough time with his brother and a part of dreaded to find out what consequences that would entail. He had to talk Kakashi-senpai into guard duty for Nii-san. Absolutely had to, before the first prank starts. He was very grateful to his mother for running interference, but he didn't know how long it would take for Sasuke to snap. And his 7 year old otouto snapping was not the best thing there is and anyone who'd seen the prank war Naruto and his beloved otouto started, would know. On a lighter note, they needed to bring a balance to those two or they were very likely to simply burn the Village down in the midst of their adventurous prankathons.

Itachi decided he's tuned out enough of the monologue of the Clan heads and focused on the topics they were discussing. Thankfully, they'd all moved onto other topics of discussion and were making significant progress on the Academy's budget and the funds needed for running various businesses of the Clans. The meeting would end now, thankfully and he could go back to guarding Haru Nii-san. But before that he needed to give his little brother what Shisui would call Sasuke's much needed 'Itachi- attention-time.'

Only Shisui would come up with such ridiculous names.

Suddenly the Yondaime gasped, and ordered the meeting 'dismissed" and flashed away. Everyone in the room seemed vaguely irritated at the prospect but the head Medic and certain clan Heads like Uzunaki Kushina and Uchiha Fugaku, instantly tensed.

Everyone slowly flickered out of the room and the above mentioned people simply flickered away to the hospital room, because that could be the only place Minato could flash away to.

Minato on entering the hospital room with his famous signature technique found both Naruto and Sasuke staring at the older Uchiha and could only wonder how the kids had slipped past ANBU guarding him.

The kids were staring at the Uchiha with slightest bit of insecurity and loads of anger. The kind of anger that Naruto and Sasuke only let the world know when they weren't being doted upon. This was not to say that the kids were spoilt, it was the contrary, the kids knew their parents and siblings had a lot of responsibility and had enough patience to deal with a little bit of negligence on their parts. The adults would at least spend a minimum of ten minutes with the kids but with the newest Uchiha in town they barely had enough time to see them with all the political maneuvering that needed to be done so that the Uchiha clan would still be regarded safe for the Village.

The kids were glaring at the boy nestled in the covers of the hospital bed and Minato for the first time since coming into the room feared for the boy's sanity because Naruto and sasuke going on a resentment trip was really not all that fun. Ask his ANBU if anyone didn't believe it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m a little scared about how this chapter turned out and with all the response from the previous chapter I’m even more nervous about posting this. So please tell me what you think. Constructive criticism greatly appreciated! Once again thanks to all the people who’ve reviewed fav’ed and followed this fic!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading this... You are one of the most receptive crowd ever!!! Thanks to Katycat612 for pre-reading this! I really appreciate the help

 “Tou-chan,” his seven-year old said in a very tight voice, pouring a possibly impossible amount of seriousness into his tone than he’d ever expect from his son. “Is this man worth all the trouble you’re going through?”

Meanwhile, his demonic little counterpart, not that his son was the perfect picture of an angel, stared at Minato with large widened eyes. Minato sighed, this was bringing back memories of those days that Sasuke had been an insecure little brat, the days when the brat was practically ignored by the rest of the Clan, as the tensions between the Clan and the Village ran high.

“Every person is worth something, Naru-chan,” Minato chided his seven year old who looked away from the boy on the bed. “Also you should leave now, before Mikoto-san comes here to find you.”

Sasuke, for his part paled to a point his complexion was just a shade darker than the hospital walls. Little Sasuke knew that coming here would make his parents very upset with him and he was quite sure his mother would ground him for at least a month, but he wasn’t about to regret coming here. He wanted to see the guy who was taking his parents away from him, keeping them all so busy.

“Sasuke-chan, it’s time to go,” Minato says kindly, waiting for the seven year old. But the boy didn’t move. He continued to stare at the pale older Uchiha in the hospital bed. Naruto looked at his best friend and new that he was about to go into one of his sulks and decided to quickly prevent it. _A sulking Sasuke was never a good prankster, time to remedy Sasu-chan’s mood,_ the other seven year old thought.

“Hey, Bakaka-nii, you’re here, aren’t you, let’s go get some ramen,” Naruto yelled, knowing the meaning behind the word ‘strategic retreat’ even at that young age. Sasuke turned to Naruto with a glare that set Minato on edge but when Naruto returned the same glare back on the youngest Uchiha in the room, he knew there was nothing to worry about. The kids were always like this.

An ANBU in the corner of the room twitched, and Minato had to suppress a childish giggle at hearing Naruto’s nickname for his student- his only student. It was quite adorable really.

 The first time Naruto called his student that name, Kushina had burst into a kind of laughter that sent shivers down the spines of several shinobi in the room and Naruto continued to smirk at the older teen, continued to smirk to the point Kakashi felt the need to nearly bump the boy on the head. But then the innocent little devil that was the youngest Uchiha of the main family stepped up to Kakashi and pouted and called him ‘Kaka-nii, you’re not gonna hit the baka, are you? I need him to be my friend, and please treat us to some food, Kaka-nii, I’m starving!!’ That little display from the kid had been enough to confuse Kakashi until the two pre genin dragged him out the door, to the ramen stand and barbeque place, and made him pay for all the food the kids had eaten. And that was the amount of food that a Jounin on chakra exhaustion would eat. Needless to say the kids had been practicing their good boy-bad boy routine on Kakashi ever since with Sasuke being the good boy and Naruto being the bad, when it was usuallythe other way around. Naruto’s pranks had a sufficiently effective even against ANBU and that was all Sasuke’s part on the team.

Some kind of silent conversation went through the two kids and Sasuke sighed, looking ten years older. Minato had to stop the rolling of his eyes forcefully to curb the drama from increasing further. The kids’ drama would put Konoha’s best soap operas to shame. He quickly signed for Kakashi to appear before them and Kakashi reluctantly did, trying his very best not to pout. An ANBU with a 100% success rate should _never_ pout, or so said the ANBU rules.

“Kaka-nii,” Sasuke cried- here comes the drama, I should have brought my popcorn, Minato thought- looking utterly devastated, “Kaa-san and Tou-san are too busy with this unconscious shinobi, Aniki and Shisui-Nii are busy too. They don’t even care if I don’t get enough food anymore, won’t you feed us?”

The delivered lines had Kakashi nearly crying out for his wallet again. He resignedly nodded his head and started for the door.

“Yay,” Naruto yelled and tackled Kakashi in the back, and making the older man carry the boy piggyback to Ichiraku. Sasuke, however, didn’t move an inch, and he fixed a stare that only an Uchiha could and the air turned serious in a way only a seven-year-old could muster. “I don’t like this man. If he so much as commits a small crime, throw him out the village,” the little seven year old ordered.

Minato resisted the urge to raise an eyebrow at the boy and quickly placated the boy, “Of course Sasuke-sama.”

These kids were so adorable, too cute really.

The child nodded sagely before steeping to the door. He quickly turned to the window and said, “I know you’re out there Aniki. Let’s go get some lunch.”

Itachi jumped in through the window looking not at all bothered that he’d been spotted, hell he was impressed with Sasuke’s ability to sniff him out and briefly wondered if it worked for the others too. He nodded to Minato and turned his attention to his little brother, “So how do want to go, Sasuke-chan? Slow way or the fast way?”

“Slow and I’m riding on your back,” the boy said with finality to his tone that amused the older occupants of the room.

“Well then, let us leave then Sasu-sama,” Itachi granted, before swooping up the little 7 year old onto his back. He gave him good wiggle and soon the child’s dour expression disappeared and gave way to a childish giggle.

“Onwards then,” Sasuke said pointing to the door. With that, the two brothers nodded at the Hokage and left.

Itachi, however, let himself have a brief once over of Haru-nii on the bed before walking out.

!@#$%^&&^%$#@!

Uchiha Mikoto watched the entire scene with unreadable eyes before she strode in, her presence concealed enough to even fool her little children- it was a difficult task though, considering how both her sons developed into very effective Mom-sensors. Sasuke in particular was very effective. Normally, she would have stopped to greet her children and subtly show them that she could still pull wool over their eyes, but now wasn’t the right time for that. She had other important things to do.

“You shouldn’t spy on your children, Mikoto-san,” Minato muttered, looking over the boy’s clip board and handing it off to Mikoto after a cursory glance. “Report,” he added with the Hokage mask firmly in place.

Mikoto and Kushina had been on a mission leaving behind enhanced Shadow Clones from Kushina’s seals- they wouldn’t irritate the kids. They’d gone to the only place she knew that would give them a few answers.

“The Wandering Clan’s dwelling has been obliterated, Hokage-sama, and according to the signs this happened about two months ago.”

At the word ‘obliterated’, Minato took a deep breath to quell off an oncoming headache.

“Cause of destruction, unconfirmed, though both Kushina and I believe it was another Uchiha. Not the boy, though. I know this because the place still has latent chakra and Kushina swore it belonged to the Uchiha who broke the Kyuubi’s seal but we don’t want to speculate. The boy’s chakra hasn’t been in the Village for nearly three months before the attack and there was brief flicker of it about three weeks ago. There were traces of Amataresu being used as well.”

“This is not good. Kushina?” Minato asked.

“Eating ramen with Naruto, by now, and yes circumstances are less than ideal,” she whispered.

“The boy’s in for a world of pain, isn’t he?”

“It isn’t so much the pain that I’m worried about, rather the insanity,” she said quietly, looking at the boy on the hospital.

Minato sighed, “Will he ever recover?”

“He will, he’s survived this long so he’ll survive this too. If not for himself, then he might as well do it for my oldest. That boy has gotten very close to our mystery Uchiha. We still don’t have any proof as to who this boy is. As you know his DNA has been tampered with.”

Miikoto did not tense when she felt arms wrap around her waist from behind. She continued talking not at all feeling caged in the strong arms of her husband. She looked up to meet his eyes for a second and stopped talking, letting a small but significant conversation pass through her eyes. She was happy Fugaku showed up now more than ever as she still felt the effects of her discoveries of the Wandering Clan’s place of abode. The carnage was so difficult to stomach and that was saying something considering how she’d been through a war with and had probably seen more than her few share of mutilated corpses. Her morbid thoughts were halted by the gruff voice of her husband.

“Itachi threatened to defect if the Council did not give this boy here a chance,” Fugaku stated quietly to his wife, looking proud of his oldest. “I didn’t know whether to feel proud of him or take him on my knee to spank him.” Mikoto chuckled quietly, not minding Minato who was witnessing genuine affection between the couple.

“Sasuke-chan ordered the Hokage to throw that boy out the second he commits the smallest of crime, Fugaku. Ordered,” she stated quietly. “I honestly don’t know what to think about that little order.”

“They’ve been doing that a lot recently haven’t they? They’re becoming their own people now, it hurts a little. They’re growing up so quickly,” Minato said quietly, trying not to break the moment.

“They are,” Mikoto and Fugaku agreed at the same time.

“Can we house him Mikoto? Will he be safe?” Fugaku asked. ‘will we be safe from him and will he feel safe with us?’ was the unspoken question Mikoto heard.

“I don’t know, Fugaku. I’ll tell you once I talk to him,” she said, looking at Hokage for confirmation.

Minato nodded and Fugaku spoke quietly, “Don’t break him too much when you talk to him. Itachi will never forgive you if you do.”

“He needs to be completely broken to be rebuilt again, but that will only happen if I come to the decision that he’s a threat to everyone else. So there’s no point in arguing about this now,” she said, detangling herself from the cage of his arms, moving to the window feeling slightly claustrophobic. “And it’s precisely because of my boy that I can’t go easy on him.”

“He’ll wake up soon and I want to be the first person to talk to him when he wakes up Minato-sama,” Mikoto said. “I’ll be back in an hour.”

With that she gracefully disappeared in a shunshin, leaving Fugaku more than a little dismayed at his wife’s words.

“Don’t look so glum, Fugaku, he’ll be okay. I have a good feeling about the boy,” Minato said clapping his hand on Fugaku’s shoulder. Fugaku for his part let the hand stay for a moment before shrugging it off and nodding at him.

Minato did not know what Mikoto was capable of. He’ll find out soon enough, Fugaku thought.

He outwardly remained stoic as looked at the boy while inwardly he was very worried. Mikoto was dangerous when she got like this. She was stronger than he was, Fugaku thought. It’s only her constant need for deception being The Genjutsu Mistress of Konoha that made many people underestimate her. Fugaku though, had no such misconceptions, so he truly knew what his wife was capable of, what she’d done in the past war. The things she’d uncovered and caused were all classified A rank and several were S ranked.

But this time it was her boys on the line. Fugaku was sure they’d failed as parents to Itachi thinking of how much burden they’d put on his young shoulders a few years ago. And since then they’d been doing everything in their power to make it up to him. Both of them had known just how close to broken their child had gotten and thanked all the Gods above for their second child, and the subsequent removal and exile of Danzo. If it weren’t for Sasuke, Itachi would have snapped a long time ago. Their oldest had never been one to get close to people and seeing him get this attached to an unconscious, injured person set their parental instincts screaming. But Fugaku knew for a fact that the boy was not bad. He had enough faith in his oldest to know that he’d never get close to a person with questionable behavior let alone grow protective of that person. So he’d give the boy a moment of doubt and see where that takes him.

The boy better have a strong spirit if he wanted to escape the natural whirlwind, his wife was named after. Although thinking about it now, the boy did have a strong spirit because no one would have survived what the boy had gone through and still cling to life the way the boy had- he’d even struggled against his wife’s genjutsu and very nearly fried the nerves of nearly two jounin and a Sannin in his state. He smirked, thinking that for once he’d met someone who was much more stubborn than his wife. Maybe the boy would come out of this alive, yet.

!@#$%^&&^%$#@!

Mikoto watched the boy as he struggled on the hospital mattress trying to get away from the demons that haunted his sleep. Choked sounds of suffering left his mouth around the breathing tube stuck in his throat, and the sight was truly pitiful. Not that she’d ever say it out loud. Mikoto knew she couldn’t go easy on this boy because she was sure she’d seen the darkness in his soul, as familiar with it as she was with the darkness that tainted her own soul. The death of the entire Clan, friends, family…. It was bound to have an effect on the boy. Frankly she didn’t know what to expect-would the boy be buried in the darkness, drowning in hate or would he at least realize there was something beyond the darkness and hate.

Sighing, she walked closer to the boy, placed a finger on his pale, sweaty forehead and murmured the word ‘sleep’ with all the proficiency of Genjutsu mistress. But unlike the first time this time the boy’s eyes opened wide, as he gasped and shook, pale hands shaking. She observed him as he panicked-oddly fascinated with him- her genjutsu hadn’t been broken in a while. And the pain from opening his eyes without gaining full recovery sent him into an even bigger panic. She sighed and ordered, “Stop.”

And he did, anchoring himself to her voice, so she continued ordering, “Close your eyes, they are not completely healed yet. Nod if you understand, there’s a breathing tube stuck down your throat, don’t expect to give any verbal answers until I remove it, which I will in a moment.”

He nodded and immediately closed his eyes. Mikoto could feel the relief that spread through him once the pain from his eyes dulled. She cautiously moved closer, approaching him as one would an injured, wild animal all the while telling him what she was going to do. He nodded at the words and seemed extremely attentive to anything she said.

“I want you to take a big, deep breath and cough the tube out. It’s doing more harm than good right now,” she said as she stood next to his place on the bed.

A horrible coughing sound later found the boy gasping slightly and the tube was out. She held out a glass of water to his mouth and he greedily took small sips and sighed.

Mikoto placed the glass on the side table near the bed and turned her attention to the lone survivor of the Wandering branch. This was probably the second time Mikoto happened to be this close to the boy. She’d been unconsciously staying away from the boy because she knew this day would come; the day where she would don on her mask of the feared Field Interrogator. The boy was paler than usual but that could be the pain making it so. The long, black locks looking all the more tangled and wild as they sat atop his head ruffled from sleep.

“Do you know who I am?” she asked, forcing a casual air about her.

“The Matriarch of the Uchiha Clan, Uchiha Mikoto. I am in Konoha then” the boy says quietly almost to himself.

“Correct. You have the advantage in this situation. Why don’t you tell me your name, little Uchiha?” she asked, now quickly getting lost in the persona of her mask.

“Haru, Mikoto-sama,” he rasped, his voice lost with all the inactivity.

“Oh you mean, _Uchiha_ Haru,” she stated, putting emphasis on Uchiha.

“Yes,” he whispered, strained.

“I was here when Tsunade-sama began healing you and I’ve healed those cracked ribs of yours. Since I know your injuries almost as much as Tsunade herself does, why don’t I give you your prognosis?” she continued before letting him have enough time to talk, “your bones are all healing nicely, your liver’s back to 100% functionality, no trace of poison in your system.”

He nodded at that and waited quietly for her to continue.

“Your _eyes_ however are completely a different story. Do you mid I bandage your eyes closed so that you wouldn’t try to open them?” she proceeded without waiting for an agreement from the boy and promptly started to bandage his eyes, “oh where was I? Ah I was telling you about your eyes.”

She waited and waited for the boy to ask the question and it took five minutes for the boy to get a hint and just ask.

“What about my eyes, Mikoto-sama?” he asked, his voice straining with something other than exhaustion, some deep pain clouding his face before it disappeared leaving a porcelain mask in its stead.

“Oh, nothing except the fact that you may not be able to open them for a month without feeling as if someone were ripping them off. And it would be nearly six months before you could manage to activate your basic Sharingan without passing out from the fried pathways. Oh, there are chances you may never even activate them.”

All the while Mikoto watched the boy, his reaction to the loss of Sharingan, her condescending tone and waited for a reaction she knew would come…….except it wasn’t the one she was expecting. The boy released a long suffering sigh but there was an odd kind of relief on his face when she said the chances of him never being able to activate the Sharingan. It was a little white lie, which never hurt anyone. Anyone in the boy’s shoes would be screaming and throwing a tantrum right about now. She watched him for another moment and decided to try another route with the boy.

“My youngest child hates you. Hate may be a strong word, but you’re not his favorite person right now. Do you know why?” she asked, letting a little curious edge to pass through her tone.

“I don’t think- you’ve all been spending too much time on me, “he said bypassing his earlier hasty statement entirely. He looked way too tired as sighed at the end of the statement.

She chuckled, “Perceptive little boy, aren’t you? True, that about sums it up. He was even here a couple of hours ago, bypassing the ANBU guard who was supposed to keep anyone under a certain clearance away from your room. Minato sent him off. He’s probably making poor Kakashi and the rest of the ANBU pay for ignoring him and his friend for the past week.”

“Sounds like a sweet kid,” he muttered, turning his head away from the pillow to the window.

“He is, once you get on his good books,” Mikoto replied making it perfectly clear that Haru wasn’t.

Haru merely sighed again, and shook his head. This kid sighs too much for an Uchiha.

“You said ‘youngest’….” he asked, trailing off at the end.

“Ah, I have an older son, Itachi. He was the one who found you in the woods- he was on a mission,” Mikoto said.

“Ah,” he replied.

So far Mikoto had found out quite a lot just from the boy’s expressions, his responses. The boy was obviously sane, but that could just be a farce- he could be hiding his insanity or just be bottling it all up. But Mikoto had a feeling that the boy would not travel down the dark path- she wasn’t sure how, but she knew. There was glow about him, a grace in the way he held himself even in the hospital bed that made it obvious that he couldn’t go down the dark path. She carefully thought about her next move admiring the boy’s ability to stay still and actually _think_ rationally. Because any Shinobi with half a mind would know what Mikoto was doing: It was obvious because she wasn’t trying hard to conceal.

Maybe the boy would appreciate a direct approach and that way she could cause some cracks in the stoic Uchiha mask. Ironic wasn’t her trying to break another Uchiha’s mask, when her own was so damn hard to break. She nearly chuckled, because she hasn’t had to do this for a while now- Fugaku’s mask had been damn near hard to break but in the end it worked out fine and Fugaku was actually grateful for that.

Okay time to end this.

She bent slightly at the waist and reached a hand to slowly run it along the boy’s cheek all the while saying, “I was once a Field Interrogator during the Third War, not many people know about this, but I’m infamous in my own way. I’m telling you this because I don’t trust you. I’m telling you this because my responses to certain situations don’t just affect me alone these days. I have two sons and a husband I need to think about, a Clan to care for and a Village to serve. If it were just me I wouldn’t bother doing any of this. I’d simply _end_ you.”

Her threatening tone and the chilling Killing Intent froze the boy’s breath. She could see it all now- the cracks spreading, becoming wider and letting her have a glimpse at the person underneath. And it was beautiful too- both the breaking of the mask and the person underneath. The boy underneath was beautiful, pure in a way Mikoto had only seen few. But she had to continue.

“You may have saved my Hokage, my Village and save even my best friend’s life and I’m grateful for that. But that just doesn’t mean I can trust you right away. I may not even trust you at the end either. I know you’re strong, I know you could end me right now if you wish but that just makes it that much harder for me to trust you, your power, your _sanity_.” A caress to the cheek and a soft ruffle of his hair accompanied the statement.

“I’ll only tell you this once, so you better pay attention.” She ever so slowly let her fingers tangle into his hair and a second later she wrenched it back drawing out a gasp from the boy.

“You will not become a threat to Konoha. Harm my children, the Clan or the Village in anyway and I can reassure you, you’ll wish you were dead.”

She abruptly let his hair go and stepped back, to observe the boy and his head back onto the bed. He lay there panting for a second before a derisive snort broke out from the boy which soon gave way to bitter chuckles. She let her face become devoid of all emotions waiting for the boy’s amusement to die out.

“Not a day goes by without me wishing to be dead with my family and my comrades. I don’t think I have enough energy to go on a rampage over the Village now Mikoto sama,” he said with a tired little smile stretched across his painfully handsome face. She waited for him to continue but he didn’t.

“Do you truly have a death wish?” Mikoto asked quietly. “Because if you do, I will not help you with it. I will stop you every step of the way because my oldest has gotten very attached to you.”

He gave a small bitter smile that would have broken her heart had it been on her Sasuke’s face or Itachi’s for the matter. She made a vow to never let such a look enter her children’s face.

“You will live through this grief and you will live through Naruto’s and Sasuke’s initiation ceremony. You will endure and you will _thrive_ , because as a Shinobi it’s your duty to endure and thrive in any situation,” she spoke the last words firmly, looking not at all worried about the reaction to the word ‘endure’.

She looked on as he contemplated something opening his mouth to answer and closing it off without speaking a word. He seemed to steel himself for whatever he felt like saying.

“I won’t lose control Mikoto-sama, I swear on the graves of my comrades who’ve fallen a few months ago,” he said and the sincerity in those words assured her even more.

“Hmm… so do you know who killed the Wandering Clan? We found traces of your chakra two weeks ago near there and we also found the mass funeral pyre,” Mikoto looked slightly troubled as she asked this.

The boy’s face went melancholic for a second before he composed it, “My parents died when I was five. One day, I was bothering my Mother to teach me the proper way to throw a shuriken, irritating my Father to teach me the Katon: Goukakyuu, laughing with my cousins and the next day they were gone trying to delay a group of Kumo nin from attacking the area. I spent a long time hating everything but a friend of mine hit me on the back of my head and showed in not so many words that he would be there for me and that he’d always been. He died three months ago; I was nowhere near the area to be there for him or the rest of the Clan as I’d been travelling, collecting information. So the answer to your question is: I don’t know.”

Mikoto closed her eyes, letting her mask break, thinking on how to respond. She moved closer and ran her hand along his cheek in a way she’d only ever done to Sasuke and she questioned herself on why she was doing it now when she never even did it to Itachi. But something about the boy’s honest pain made it harder for her to keep her mask up and continue through with her original plan. Maybe this was what her oldest felt when he saw him a week ago on the forest floor dying. The boy’s breath hitched but it only took a second for him to recompose himself.

He continued in a similarly defeated- no not defeated, melancholic would explain the best- tone as before, “It’s difficult to close your eyes to darkness when you’ve seen light is it not Mikoto-sama? I’ve been obsessed with hatred and vengeance before, and that is how I’d defined myself for a long time. After that Idiot made me see light again, I had to once again redefine myself to fit into society. But they’re all gone now and I don’t know how to redefine myself anymore. I don’t have the energy to do it anymore. I’m too tired anyway.”

Mikoto did not talk knowing very well that the boy needed to let it all out to start feeling better. She couldn’t bear to look at him and yet she continued to, listening to him when he really needed someone to listen. His handsome face was torn between anguish and bone deep exhaustion that should never exist in the face of twenty one year old. Mikoto now understood the full extent of the boy’s depression and understood Inoichi’s cautious words on how to deal with him when he learned of her decision.

“I know about our Clan’s insanity, Mikoto-sama. I know that intimately well and I hope I’m wrong when I say this but you seem to, as well.”

“I do,” she whispered, ruffling his hair slightly.

“Then you know why I can’t lose myself to that hatred. It’s impossible when you’ve learned to think with a clear head again. I don’t want to go back to the way I was, Mikoto-sama, I don’t want to,” he pleaded, looking desperate- something child like clung to his words.

“You won’t. I’ll make sure you won’t, Haru-kun,” she promised, fully sincere in keeping it. “You’ll stay in the hospital for a month, after that I want you to stay with us in the Uchiha compound, with my family. Minato will probably assign ANBU for your probation and in that month I want you to shadow me. I’ll make sure you have enough work to do and when you finally feel that you can start grieving, I want you to come and tell me. We’ll help, trust me: grieving is easy when you do it with people. It doesn’t matter that you are from the Wandering Clan, people here respect them for leaving peacefully and respect them for taking permission from the Shodaime. We’ll grieve along with you. We’ll show you how it’s truly done and at the end of it you’ll feel better. I know you will.”

“I don’t want to forget about them,” he whispered brokenly, the anguish now overtaking every other emotion on his face.

“You won’t. Grieving doesn’t mean you’ll forget. It simply means you’ll be able to remember the happier moments with them.”

“Okay,” he said in a small voice.

She slowly ran her fingers through his hair and thought of the entire conversation. This was not how she planned for the conversation to take place.

She was overwhelmed with the amount of trust he had in her as she continued to run her fingers through his hair when only a few moments ago she’d told she’d end him. Placing this amount of trust in her to do what was right- it took a special kind of strength and placed too much responsibility. She was thankful to all the Gods above that the boy hadn’t gone insane. She knew firsthand what kind of insanity Uchiha would be plunged in when they experience the death of a precious person.

She somehow ended up humming an off-key tone (her kunoichi-sensei would be rolling in her grave at how awful she sounded) but the boy miraculously calmed down and looked more exhausted than anguished.

When she was sure the boy was asleep she carefully moved away to the door, her hands shaking, her own mind in tatters with the boy’s state.

“Mikoto-sama?

She froze at the door her eyes clenched shut. She unclenched them forcibly before composing her face.

“What is it, haru-kun?” she asked still turned away from Haru.

“Can you please seal my Sharingan away, temporarily?” she heard the boy ask.

The odd request made her turn around and it took a second for her to figure out why. Her heart went out to the boy- this boy with a broken mind and a dead Clan.

“I’ll ask Kushina. Is there anything else, Haru-kun? Do you need anything else?” she asked.

“No, Mikoto-sama. Go back to your youngest, I have a feeling he would hate me if I kept you here any longer,” he said smiling slightly. It was painful to watch him smile, but she did anyway and she would continue it until his smile turned real one day. Until then she would continue to look at him as he smiled that painful smile and do everything in her power to make it better for him.

“Don’t cry Mikoto-sama,” she heard the boy say. “It’ll be okay. I’ll make it all okay.”

Her hand automatically went to her cheek and surely enough she found a trail of tears running down her cheek. Why was he the one taking care of her- she, who was an adult. This is madness, maybe the boy is mad, she thought hysterically on the inside.

“I’m fine haru-kun. I’ll come visit you tomorrow with a basket of food. Tsunade-sama’s help in the hospital made it better in many ways but the food here is still atrocious, I hear, so I’ll visit you tomorrow with some real food. Do you have any requests for food? No, okay I’ll make you some onigiri. Take care of yourself, until then, Haru-kun,” she said forcing a false cheer into her voice at the beginning.

“Goodbye Mikoto-sama,” he whispered, and soon fell asleep.

“Goodbye child,” she whispered

!@#$%^&&^%$#@!

Minato watched the entire conversation with Fugaku, Tsunade and Inoichi. It was a pleasant surprise to see just how much information the boy willingly gave up evem though half of it was vague. True they didn’t know a lot, but they now knew that the boy would not cause any harm to Konoha. The boy’s feelings had been quite clear and it would be impossible to fake such feelings of grief. So the boy would stay with Mikoto’s, he could work with that. Tsunade looked about ready to rip Mikoto a new one when she saw how upset the boy looked but held back knowing that the process was necessary.

Inoichi, Minato observed had left as soon as the boy spoke of his parents’ death, saying he didn’t need to hear the story. At some point in time Kakashi came back without his shadows and he too watched the conversation quietly not making a sound. Minato honestly had no idea what was going on in Kakashi’s head, but he could worry about that later.

When Mikoto finally came out, looking emotionally exhausted, Fugaku made an effort to take her away but she stubbornly stayed.

“The Subject, I believe, is not a threat to Konoha, Hokage-sama. He needs a stable environment and I apologize for making your decision for you about the boys’ release. But I need him to stay with me. I promised him, I’ll take care of everything, Minato. I intend to keep that promise no matter what,” her eyes were cold steel as she said this. Minato knew that once Mikoto made up her mind like this she was never one to back out.

“There’s no need to apologize Mikoto-san. Everything you said about the boy’s release is what I’ve been planning to do anyway. I’ll talk to him tomorrow and take care of the rest of the things he needs to know, like his assessment.”

She nodded and turned to Fugaku, “Let’s go, Fugaku. Take care of him Tsunade-sama and I’m sorry for upsetting your patient.”

Tsunade good-naturedly waved it off, knowing that the conversation had upset the Matriarch just as much.

They shunshinned away from the open window; leaving a medic, an ANBU and a Hokage behind them. The medic soon left saying she had patients to see.

“What do you think Kakashi-kun? Is it okay to trust that boy?” Minato asked, wanting to his student’s input. Kakashi was an extremely good judge of character when he put his mind to it.

“You’ve already made up your mind, Minato-sensei. I don’t think he’s harmful. But…”

“But what, Kakashi-kun?”

“I think he’s hiding something. But I don’t believe it is meant to cause harm. It’s probably a good idea to keep an eye on him.”

“Well then, get ready for your new-“ Mianto started with the beaming smile he gets when he assigns Kakashi to mundane task.

“No.”

“- assignment. This is a direct order form your Hokage. After his stay here in the hospital, you’ll accompany him back to the Uchiha compound and stay there to keep an eye on him,” Minato continued as if he hadn’t ever heard Kakashi speaking.

Kakashi slumped slightly pouting and whining like a child, “Not fair, Minato-sensei. Not fair at all.”

And Minato for his part just cackled at his student’s misery. Seriously torturing his student harmlessly like this was so much fun.

Abruptly a toad appeared in the room looking around the room before settling its small beady eyes on Minato.

“A message from Jiraiya,” Kosuke mutters as he threw a scroll to Minato and promptly disappeared.

Minato warily opened the scroll hoping it wasn’t another false alarm with another Icha Icha book sealed into it. Kakashi had loved that little prank.

“What is it, Minato-sensei?” Kakashi asked looking bright, his eyes taking on an unholy wicked glint.

But Minato barely paid any attention to his snickering student, the contents of the scroll for once holding his attention completely.

Kakashi stared at his teacher concerned as his demeanor turned icy. His left hand balled into a fist and killing intent leaked into the air, freezing Kakashi for a second before he moved.

“It’s him, Kakashi-kun.”

“Who, Minato-sensei?” Kakashi asked, already paling considering the possibilities.

“Orochimaru has apparently left Akatsuki and disappeared without a trace,” Minato said in a grave voice. “Even Jiraiya-sensei himself is finding it difficult to follow leads on him. He truly has disappeared without a trace as I could never get close enough to place a seal on him.”

Orochimaru, missing? The words sent a thrill of fear- no, anxiety through Kakashi, knowing it to be the threat it was.

_Damn it…._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm worried about your reactions to Mikoto. But she gets there in the end. Also I'm a little worried about Haru being OOC. So tell me if he is....


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> College has been kicking my butt and I had barely no time to write in the past couple of months. Thanks to Katycat612 for pre-reading this. You're awesome Katy!!!!

Kushina strode into the hospital with all the purpose of a growling lioness on a hunt and everyone within a hundred foot radius knew right away not to obstruct her path. They knew without a doubt that Kushina’s rage was something they absolutely did not want to incur. So when they saw her coming towards the Subject Savior’s room, they knew it was the best idea to look away.

She passed the room with barely a nod to the ANBU standing there and closed the door shut behind her, a second later they couldn’t hear anything else as the sound absorption seals took effect. It was only Kakashi’s presence from inside the room that stopped them from breaking the door down to protect their beloved Hokage’s wife, the Uzumaki Clan Head.

!@#$%^&&^$#@!

Kushina activated the seal she made with Minato- the seal that would completely hide her chakra; make her seem like a void in space, unnoticeable but present. There was a good chance the boy would notice the void, but she was damned sure he was too exhausted to. She glanced at the kid that had saved her life and Minato’s all those years ago and she very quickly tried to call up on her blurry memories of that day. It is him; she thinks but tries to keep her emotions at bay. She knew Kakashi was in the room with her so she tries her hardest to keep her memories and emotions at bay; no need to scare away her surrogate little brother-son combo. 

But the sight on the bed holds the major part of her attention. There the boy was, in all his Uchiha glory. When she visited with Minato on the first day she was admittedly more occupied with her un-cooperating memories of that night. She knew that she had felt that chakra before, knew it intimately as the boy had forced his chakra and his consciousness into the seal to snap the Kyuubi out of its-no, his- idiotic rage.

The boy had seemed ethereal that day with all that chakra and power but now on that bed he seemed more human. More like the rest of them. He barely even seemed to retain a jounin chakra level now. What had once been equivalent to a Kage’s or multiple Kage level now reduced to barely a Jounin. She walked over to the side of the bed, raising a hand to hover over the boy’s face but Inu stopped her uncertain hand and held it away from the boy.

She snapped her gaze to the Dog-masked ANBU and followed him to the corner of the room when he tugged at her arm.

When he turned to face her, she had an eyebrow raised, waiting for an answer to Inu’s actions.

“Don’t touch him, Kushina-sama. Tsunade-sama swore to smack the first person to wake him up,” he muttered quietly, irritated at the thought of Tsunade’s threat.

The eyebrow she had raised, rose even higher at the boy’s answer.

“He only just fell asleep a couple hours ago after Tsunade-sama’s morning check-up and he’s been up all night.”

“Up all night?”

“Nightmares,” he answered and the Uzumaki winced, looking away. An Uchiha’s nightmares were full of color and surround-sound thanks to the stupid eidetic memory the Sharingan gives them. Mikoto’s nightmares from back during the War were-

“He the one?” Inu asks quietly taking her thoughts away from her best friend’s nightmares.

“He is, although he looked cuter in my memories, cuter than you did when you were that age,” she says, pouting. She could practically hear the ANBU roll his eye at that statement and knew to stifle her smile.

“Not funny Kushina-sama, I’m never cute.”

“Sure Brat, tell yourself that if it makes you happy.” She smiled happily, looking at the boy, the sole student left from Minato’s team. But the atmosphere changed instantly, she watched as he turned to look at the boy on the bed. She waited knowing Kakashi was about to vent to her and knew it was the least she could do to listen. There was a grim look in Kakashi’s eye as he watched the boy. He was stewing over something and it was definitely bubbling out now.

“He doesn’t look like much- average jounin chakra-level, good reflexes- but every ninja has that- and loads of bad memories like any other Shinobi,” Kakashi murmured, looking at his charge.

Kushina knew not to interrupt her surrogate son/brother when he started talking like this. She waited for what she knew was coming. And she wasn’t disappointed.

“But he does have good chakra control. He also seemed good at lightning transformations, good enough to nearly fry my nerves, and being an Uchiha he’s bound to have a Fire release. He seems pretty good at breaking genjutsu too. I’ve never seen Mikoto-sama’s genjutsu be broken that easily, and by someone in his condition. Even Itachi has trouble breaking out of her genjutsu on his best day's .”

“There’s a certain feel to him,” he says quietly,” the kind that makes my skin crawl.”

“Is he really all that bad, Kakashi?” she asked as she pulled his ANBU mask away, one of the only two people who could get away with such a stunt.

“Maa, he is hiding a lot,” he says,” I don’t like the idea of you or Sensei spending a lot of time with him.”

 “Are you suggesting that Minato and I can’t take care of ourselves?” she asks narrowing her eyes at the boy beside her. She knew Kakashi got over-protective at times, their near-deaths that night enough to fuel that fire. But they both made sure not to encourage Kakashi’s over-protectiveness. Kakashi was  _their_  charge, not the other way around.

“I never implied that,” he says, sulking.

“Oh then what were you implying, genius?”

“Nothing,” he says sulking and looking away.

“It better stay that way,” she says.

“So you don’t like him, and yet you agreed to watch over him?” Kushina wasn’t fooled in the slightest. Kakashi remained silent as he gazed at the Uchiha.

The thing with Kakashi was that not even Minato could make him do something he doesn’t want to do and that was saying something since most people think Kakashi would do anything to please Minato. Ah, the beauty of having a brat for a surrogate brother, or son depending on how much of an infant Kakashi wants to be in the middle of tantrums. Tantrums that are immense fun to watch, because they were the boy’s way of getting back at Minato for making him do things he didn’t want to do.

And if he truly hated the job Kakashi would have millions of excuses already to skip it. But considering how he’s still here, Kushina knew what kind of bullshit he was spouting.

“Is it because of what he did that night?” Kushina asks, keeping her tone neutral.

“I don’t want to talk about it, Kushina-sama,” he said falling back on formalities the way he always did when someone had him cornered.

“Sure. For me though, Kakashi-kun, I’m- I am extremely grateful he saved my life that day,” she whispered. Kakashi, turned to look her straight in the eyes, and said, “I am glad he did too.”

“Is that why you’re still here?” Kushina asks.

She sees the question in Kakashi’s eye, as he tilts his head to understand her statement.

“You want to figure him out. That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?” 

“Figure me out?”

They both startle slightly before freezing. The Uchiha they’d thought asleep until then was sitting up in bed, slowly, cautiously.

“It’s rude to talk about a person and not acknowledge his existence especially when he is in the same room,” Haru spoke in a raspy tone, indicating disuse of his voice.

“Well, we did think you were asleep and trusted you not eavesdrop on us,” she said with a smirk on her face.

That got a reaction out of him.

Haru tilted his head back at the ceiling and did his very best not to roll his eyes, or that was what Kushina thought the Uchiha’s actions spoke of. She had her fair share of encounters with the Uchiha of course, and she thought Fugaku was an honest to God open book when most considered him a stoic fool. That man was neither a fool nor stoic, you just had to know where to look to get the real feedback when you spoke with him. Well that applied to all Uchiha of course and the only one it didn’t work with was Mikoto and she didn’t have to worry about that as Mikoto told her everything.

“So you know who you’re talking to, Kid?” she asked as she walked over to him, Kakashi quietly fallowing her. 

She observed the way his face screwed up in distaste at the Kid part. Interesting.

“Did you really think I’d forget?” he asks quietly. But he never waited for the answer and asked her another question. “How is little Naruto?”

Kushina could feel Kakashi tense behind her and even release a bit of Killing Intent. Screw your overprotective motherbear bullshit, Kakashi-kun she wants to say.

“He’s doing well, recently pranked his father by pouring ninja glue on the Hokage hat and made it stick to his head, so he’s really, really well,”  Kushina says like the proud, prankster mama she was.

She heard the choked snort she was looking for and smirked. That had been the best day ever.

“So how much do you remember from that night, Haru-kun? Do you remember everything?”

She asks quietly, needing to know what happened. All Minato and Kushina together remembered were bits and pieces of the night and they had a pretty good estimate of what could have happened. The silence from the Uchiha is telling, but for once she has no idea how to really understand it.

“I don’t remember much either,” she hears him say after a couple of minutes.

“What do you remember?”

“I remember a blond wailing menace and woman with bright red hair,” he says in a deadpan tone.

“Aren’t Uchiha supposed to have photographic memory of whatever they see with their Sharingan active?” Kakashi asks snidely. 

Haru grunts a little and there is a telltale sign of irritation on Haru’s face.

“ _I_  don’t have the brain capacity to think or process any information when I’m down 95 percent of my chakra. I’m not that much of a  _genius_ , ANBU-san.” 

Kakashi freezes and Kushina levels a look at Kakashi that says, ‘don’t bait him.’

“I’m not here to interrogate you on what you remember from that night. I’m here to thank you for saving our lives and saving the lives of hundreds of Konoha Shinobi,” Kushina says.

He doesn’t react to the statement, his face a familiar blank slate.

“Minato and I, we were ready to die that night, to save our boy, at least for a moment in time.You know we called you Subject Savior? We had no idea of who you were and that was the only name we could come up with,” she says looking for any kind of signs to see what the boy was thinking, “If you hadn’t saved our lives things could have been very different in Konoha and we are very happy that those incidents had not taken place.”

Haru, contrary to what the people in the room were thinking, knew exactly what would have happened had he not saved their lives that night. He’d experienced it of course, knew exactly what would have happened. The Uchiha Massacre, the shunning of the Kyuubi jinchuuriki, Hyuuga Hizashi’s death, the pain his older brother resigned himself to suffer through, the Akatsuki, Orochimaru, his own betrayal of his teammates, Kaguya, genetically modified clones that took on the form of his older brother to kill his wife, and the list went on and on.

The bandages over his eyes prevented him from seeing but he definitely knew what Kakashi and Kushina-sama were thinking. They had no idea what would have-could have- happened really. The Kakashi of his timeline did but not this Kakashi.

He had to get out of here. He had been very annoyed with the chakra seals, and he knew he could break them if he wanted to. Haru knew that because he spent the entire night looking for vulnerabilities in the seal and he’d found some surprising amount of them. All he had to do was bite his finger, make some seals with his blood on the areas where the seal was applied and the seals would be gone. The conversation with his mother- no, not his time line, not his mother- had messed his head up. He had to get out of here- the crippling amount of claustrophobia he hadn’t felt since the day his daughter told him about the abort- he shook his head slightly unable to think of that time. That time always made his skin crawl and his bones ache with exhaustion. He suddenly felt his true age again.

“Is there anything else you’d like to talk about, Kushina-sama?”

Kushina felt Kakashi tense once again behind her and she grabbed his arm before he could make another one of his blunt remarks. Because Kushina had been conversing with enough Uchiha, she truly knew what he’d truly meant with the question. 

_“Please change the topic or I might bolt regardless of my condition.”_

“Well, Mikoto told me you’d like to have a seal on your eyes?”

“Yes, they’d recover a lot faster without the random chakra flares,” he answered.

“Fair enough. Well why don’t we get started?” she replied before placing her hands on eitherside of his face.

“I just need to get a feel of the chakra pathways, need to know how many of them I need to seal away,” she says as she works through the pathways with her eyes closed.

“Done!” Kushina exclaims before walking back to Kakashi. 

“Haru-kun, I was going through your things-”

The devious look in Kushina’s eyes has Kakashi flinching backward and the man on the bed barely even looks offended.

“-and I found a sword there; a very beautiful chokuto. I am a bit of a kenjutsu fanatic, so maybe you could spar with me sometime, after you recover of course.”

Haru seems to be fighting a muscle in his face, because Kakashi can’t classify what he sees on the man’s face. He could be grimacing or smiling and Kakashi was none the wiser.

“So what do you say, Haru-kun?”

“Fine,” he mutters.

“Just like that?” she asks, confused at his easy acceptance.

He grunts an acceptance to the statement and Kushina is even more confused.

Kushina then pouts in a way that would have sent shivers down the spines of the Clan Heads had this been a meeting. It was a pout that said, ’someone is going to get it.’

“Oh and I also found some beads in your belongings, seriously Haru-kun what kind of a fashion statement are you trying to make wearing  _beads_ – the kind that are actually worn by monks? People will start wondering what you are!”

“What I am?” he asks a little confused now with Kushina’s very disturbing mood swing that sent her mind into thinking about fashion and fashion statements.

“People are going to think of you as this weird ‘shinobi-monk-samurai-wanderer’ hybrid!” Kushina says heatedly.

Kakashi has to stifle a snort at that title, ‘shinobi-monk-samurai-wanderer?’

But what was more entertaining was Haru’s reaction to it. He merely raised an eyebrow that even one uneducated in Uchiha-speak understood, ‘So, do I look like I care?’

Kushina looked scandalized. 

“I refuse to let you wear that!”

“Why?” he asks bewildered.

“Because you’re going to get bullied!”

“…bullied?”

“That’s right! I refuse to have someone in my family get bullied!”

“…family?”

“Yes family! You saved our lives, so Minato and I, and the rest of the Uhciha have adopted you, so you’re family and I refuse-”

There’s a pause in her statement when she notices Haru doubled over on the bed, with his shoulders shaking, his hands fisting the hospital sheets in a white-knuckled grip.

“Haru-kun?“ she asks concerned. Then she remembers that the boy actually lost his entire clan only a few months ago and here she was saying things like family when she knew how well people need time after something like that.

It takes a few minutes but Haru’s shaking does stop and he slowly raises his head, his bandaged eyes covered by his bangs.

“Why,” he asks choking on the word, “Why do you think someone’s going to bully me for wearing beads?”

Huh, Kushina thinks, and Kakashi has to hold his laughter in and when he can’t he immediately pinches himself hard to make sure the pain keeps him from laughing out loud.

“Why wouldn’t they?” Kushina asks with child-like confusion coloring her tone.

“Why would they, Kushina-sama?” he asks, the tone of his voice providing the kind of familiarity and comfort and hidden amusement that she only gets from Minato and Mikoto, and in a few years from Naruto’s.

“Aren’t monks supposed to be bald? If you wear beads then you are a monk and monks are bald and your hair’s beautiful and I refuse to let you-,” Kushina says, looking quite pleased with her deduction.

“But I am not a monk.”

“You wear beads, so you are one!”

“No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are!”

“No.”

“Yes.”

Haru sighs in that exasperating way that only the people closest to her do that it makes the hair on the back of her neck rise.

“Kushina-sama, please cut it out,” the Uchiha says quietly.

“What, Haru-kun?”

“You’re being  _annoying_ ,” he growls out thoroughly unhappy.

Kushina and Kakashi gape for a moment before Kushina’s raucous laughter fills the room.

“God, I like you. We’re keeping this one, Genius. Don’t scare him off,” Kushina says before removing the seals and walking out of the room, leaving a gob smacked Kakashi Hatake and thoroughly annoyed Uchiha Haru.

!@#$%^^%$#@!

The minute Naruto’s Mother leaves, Kakashi, his-former-sensei-but-now-a-complete-jerk-ANBU vanishes without a hint. Not that Haru doesn’t not have any idea where he is: he is leaning against the far corner of the room which was at a 58 and half degree angle from his position on the bed.

Not that thinking about his former sensei was bad thing- it wasn’t, even though it dredged up all kinds of memories of his timeline that Haru could barely even comprehend and work through half the time- but Haru seriously needed to come to a decision on leaving the Village.

 _What do you think I should do Sarada, Boruto? Stay or go?_  He asks them.

 

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I know this is late... and I hope you guys forgive me for that. 2016 was a really good year for me even with the less time I had for writing. I seriously wanted to get this chapter done and posted by December last year for my birthday but real life came up. I had couple of exams postponed and the semester started soon after that and I wanted to write the chapter as soon as I could but my muse left. So i wrote a couple of really crappy versions of this chapter which I completely rewrote by the way. So this chapter is not pre-read and I don't know if you will find any mistakes. And if you do, please feel free to ignore them and/or point them out. I will correct them as soon as I am able to.
> 
> Thanks for sticking with this story.:):):)

Kakashi stared.

He stared at the mountain of paperwork on his table in his small studio apartment with what could only be called open despair, thanking the Heavens above for not letting his kohai see this set of emotions. He was going to kill his sensei and there was nothing Kushina-nee could do to stop him and that was a-.

Great, now I have a visitor, he thought to himself as he opened the door and came face to face with his Uchiha teammates.

“What do you think-”

“We are here to help with the paperwork, senpai,” the Heir mentioned as he shouldered his way past Kakashi into his home. A feat, as the boy barely reached his shoulder.

“Shouldn’t you be there to rehabilitate the newest addition to your clan? And thank you for checking up on me, I am fine and no, you can come on in,” he says to the open space of his doorway sullenly.

Shisui raises an eyebrow at that, the gleam in his eyes one of pure mischief that led to pranks that took weeks - _weeks-_ to clean up. He’d have to watch his kohai like a hawk to make sure his apartment doesn’t blow up in his face.

Just what he needed at this time of stress, he thought to himself.

“Oh get over it, senpai of mine. We came here so that Itachi-chan here can escape Haru-san’s induction into the Clan,” Shisui replied, making himself at home and sprawling his long form on the only couch Kakashi had.

Itachi, Kakashi observed, was already sitting on the chair at the desk, slowly working through the piles of paperwork. He could definitely go faster but he seemed to deliberately slow himself to a snail’s pace.

Kakashi sighed and prepared himself to deal with hours of silence, sass and outright insubordination. Shisui chuckled and Kakashi quickly schooled his expression into his bland uninterested and completely blank- which just made Shisui snicker.

It was almost as if the Uchiha prankster could actually see beyond the mask almost as if he had x-ray vision like the Hyuuga and he really, _really,_ hated them for their eyes. He was getting off track again.

“Please sit down Kakashi-senpai. I don’t want to deal with you looming over my shoulder to check on my work,” Itachi says, looking seriously upset about the thought.

So he settled down on his bed and watched Shisui raid his fridge for food. What was it with Uchiha and Uzumaki clans that made them think he was the constant source of food?

“So, do you have any other ulterior motive other trying to help a senpai and escape the man whose life you’ve saved, Itachi?” Kakashi began, ignoring Shiui’s disgusting food habits and the shower of food from the guffaw he couldn’t choke back.

Itachi’s hands stilled but picked up speed again after a few moments. Shisui observing his cousin’s reactions turned more contemplative than Kakashi had ever seen his kohai be. It was difficult issue to talk about then. Fine, Kakashi could wait. He’d had lots of patience, anyway.

It was about an hour later that Itachi had finally decided to speak. An hour where Kakashi had spent lazing on his bed watching Shisui pig out on his food and clean up his pantry. He’d laid back and had been seriously contemplating the idea of a nap.

“I wanted to talk about the Sharingan, Kakashi-senpai,” he said quietly. Shsui immediately stopped flicking through the channels on the TV and turned his attention to Itachi.

There goes my plans for a peaceful afternoon away from paperwork, Kakashi thought bitterly, already missing the haze of his nap. He sat up and said,”What about it?”

“Haru-san has _those_ eyes,” they heard the heir mumble.

This conversation needed sake, Kakashi thought as he broke out the bottle and took a swig directly from it through the cloth of his mask, not that his cute kohai were watching him anyway. Better to be safe than sorry- he couldn’t have his kohai crush after him. Or so he consoled himself.

 “And?” Kakashi prompted in between swigs.

“And what if I saved the man who slaughtered the whole clan?”

“Having second thoughts, are we Itachi-kun?” Kakashi questioned, not unkindly.

Shisui, the ever-loving peacekeeper, observed the whole thing with passive gaze making sure not to let either of the two people in the room get upset, or say things they were not meant to say. After all the issues of the sharingan and his genin team were an off limits topic to his senpai.

“I don’t think so,” Kakashi answered finally.

Itachi finally turned around to see his senpai for the first time in an hour and noticed the look of absolute seriousness that seemed odd on his cloth covered face. How on earth did he even express that with a single eye?

“How are you so sure?”

It was Shisui this time.

“I mean, knowing what awakens them, how can you be sure that he’s not the one who killed them and made it seem like someone else?”

Interrogating someone was something everyone people could do. But truly making the person show their emotions was something only few could and Uchiha Mikoto was one of them. There was something about that woman which made it impossible to lie. Also there was something about Uchiha Haru that made it impossible to _believe_ he was lying. The pain had been too deep- and that was something which could not be faked. He’d felt the same kind of grief with the deaths of his team mates and his father. So he knew that that grief could never be faked by anyone but to explain it to brats who hadn’t lost anything on that intimate level, would be difficult. There was also Mikoto’s career to talk about and he‘s pretty sure he would never be able to escape the consequences of revealing the secrets of Mikoto-sama’s career.

Kakashi remained silent for a while debating whether to share the knowledge of Mikoto-sama interrogating the unaffiliated ninja. Mikoto-sama’s career to a normal nin would seem pretty lackluster. But it was after you reached a certain level of clearance that you got to see just how much she contributed to Konoha and the kind of consequences she’d endured for that. The clearance level was something most shinobi never reached or could dream of reaching- and Itachi and Shisui had only basic level of understanding of Mikoto’s career which was that of a kunoichi jounin who’s _seen_ war. They had no idea of the horrors she’d seen _in_ the war.

“Your mother talked to him. It’s nearly impossible-hic- to lie to her,” Kakashi replies, deciding to keep the info to himself. He could feel himself get steadily drunk.

Shisui and Itachi both looked dubious at Kakashi’s words.

“Oh come on, don’t doubt your senpai! Your mother’s career is a lot more decorated than you know, Itachi.”

“I hope so, senpai,” comes the mumbled reply from the table.

“So senpai, you’re on guard duty right?” Shisui asks.

Kakashi hums a yes and goes to lie back on the bed. He tunes out whatever Shisui is saying and closes his eyes; sleep calling to him even more urgently now.

Shisui keeps on talking even when he knew his senpai had tuned him out. It was an expected Kakashi move to take a pre mission nap. He kept chattering to fill the silences that he knew made both his little cousin and senpai more uncomfortable after a talk like that. He could already Itachi relax at the table and hear the evenness to Kakashi’s breathing.

“Sleep well, senpai, we’ll watch over you,” Shisui says quietly before he falls silent.

!@#$%^&&^%$#@!

A week later found Itachi coming home from a solo ANBU mission. Everyone knew what solo missions were- assassination missions. He hated those more than he hated anything and the Hokage being the Hokage only gave him very few of those and made sure to keep him away from the worst of his ANBU missions. But that didn’t mean he could stop giving Itachi those missions though.

Itachi jumps through the window in the Hokage’s office and waits.

Minato-sama looks up a minute later and Itachi is grateful for that. The mission he went on had a taken a toll on him not that anyone would be able to guess at it.

“Another successful mission to report?” Minato asks quietly.

“Hai”, Itachi replies, before handing over the report. All the A-rank jounin mission reports and everything below that goes through the mission desk on the first floor of the Hokage Tower. Any mission report regarding ANBU would go directly to the Hokage.

“You also have something else for me.”

Minato-sama quickly pockets the scroll and looks at him. It was a statement as well as a question.

“They were prepared for me.”

He sighs, and to Itachi, Minato suddenly looks a thousand years-or weary enough to be that age at least.

“What?” it wasn’t that the Hokage was hard on hearing, it was just that a top secret mission was just that- a top _secret_ assassination mission.

“I had a whole bunch of Kumo nin waiting for me. They looked to be on a mission to protect the target and they knew I was there the minute I took a step towards the target. I was walking into a trap.”

“That’s not possible.”

“There was an information breach, Hokage-sama.”

“I’m the only one who knows about the mission, Itachi.”

Minato’s voice had been grave as he said that and Itachi couldn’t understand why the Hokage thought Itachi was blaming him.

“I’ll send someone to check this out, Itachi. No one plays with my Shinobi.”

It was true. It felt like someone was trying to create unrest between the Villages again and if anything had happened to Itachi during the mission the Uchiha and Konoha would be out for blood.

“Did you kill them?” Minato’s voice took on quiet note. 

“No, just incapacitated them. They’ll all live and make full recovery.”

“Good. You did well, Itachi-kun. I’ll send someone to investigate this breach on the client’s side as soon as possible. And they will be punished for playing us like this..”

They remained silent for a few more moments each lost in their own thoughts.

“Go, visit Tsunade-sama, and get your injuries taken care of, Crow”, he orders, and Itachi wasn’t surprised at having the injuries pointed out.

“Not going to ask me how I know?” Minato-sama asks as though amused by the lack of surprise on Itachi’s face. All the previous melancholy was replaced with glint in his eyes that made Itachi wonder from whom exactly Naruto’s sly, mischievous nature was handed down from.

“Minato-sama wouldn’t be the Hokage if he couldn’t even-”

Minato-sama chuckles at that.

“I don’t need to be the Hokage to know that. I just have to know your Mom for a long time to figure out the facial expressions of stoic little Uchiha like you,” Minato-sama says, “You _are_ my unofficial god-son. I’m honor bound to know when you’re hurt.”

Itachi rarely has conversations like these with the Hokage in his office. That was pushed to back of his mind though when another burst of white hot pain almost made his control snap. His internal inventory told him he’d cracked at least two ribs, the gash on his back needed fifteen to twenty stitches, his swollen ankle would take up to week to heal and he still had no idea how he was standing let alone talking to the Hokage about philosophy of all things, a topic he’d enjoy at a different time sure, but now it made his skin crawl.

 _If you were my godfather then why do you send me on these missions even though you know I hate them?_ Why _don’t you discharge me from ANBU when it’s within your rig-_

“- you really should go see Tsunade, Itachi,” Minato-sama’s voice broke him out of his poisonous thoughts. There was deep seeded pain there that made Itachi look away. Pain he didn’t understand. Pain he wanted to erase but could do nothing.

But thinking about pain brought his own to the forefront and he gave a shallow bow to the Hokage and disappeared with a shunshin.

But the last words murmured by their leader hung on to him, “When will you figure it out, Itachi? When, child?”

He couldn’t think of that though, the genjutsu he kept up requiring all of his concentration. He quickly reached the hospital and insisted Tsunade not to use too much healing chakra to relieve pain. He needed to feel it. He just ended another life after all, despite his pacifist beliefs. The pain was dulled but still there, when Itachi found himself wandering the forest behind the Uchiha Compound in this late hour.

He didn’t need to worry his little brother. Sasuke really was a little spit-fire when it came to something or someone injuring Itachi. His little brother was starting to grow into his name. _Small Protector,_ that was little brother after all. He chuckled despite the pain it brought to his ribs.

He remembered Tsunade’s pinched face as she healed his leg and his ribs. The gash’s stitches pulled every time he took a step. He should find the cave and fall asleep soon. He didn’t want to be awake when Shisui came to get him.

His cousin, despite his exuberant personality, was a worrier at heart. He worried about a lot of things- he worried about the candies that were going out of stock, about the genin he rescued a couple of months ago, about ANBU paperwork, about Naruto’s and Sasuke’s next prank, but most of all he worried about Itachi.

He worried about him in a way Itachi knew he should feel grateful for, and he did most days. But days like today had him desperate and Itachi was always known to drown himself in apathy when desperate.

There was a chill in the air, which only meant Shisui would get there faster. He was upset enough as it is and the words they’d have would make him look like he didn’t appreciate the people he loved, which would definitely make him lash out which he did not want.

The tree leaves swayed hypnotically and Itachi felt even more exhausted than he ought to be. ANBU really did suck the life out of a person.

 _Ah there,_ Itachi thought, _his humble abode for the night was right there._

He made his way into the cave and lowered himself to the forest floor, closing his eyes, already drifting away the second he reached his safe haven.

The last thing he felt was the smell of ozone intermixed with tea- _his Kaa-san’s blend_ -, the steady pulse of strong chakra- _dark_ \- that made him feel safe instead of making him reach for a kunai. The absolute last thing he remembered though was the blissful lack of pain, that made him want to sob and retch but he sunk into the darkness instead feeling safe around another Uchiha that wasn’t Shisui in the first time in a long, long time.

_“You really are such an idiot, Itachi.“_

!@#$%^ &&^%$#@!

If someone asked Kakashi if his youngest Uhiha kohai would feel safe with anyone else other than Shiaui, he would say no and if anyone tried to say they think otherwise he’d merely go back to his Icha Icha making them think he was snickering at the jokes in the book rather than at them. He would really be snickering at _their_ naiveté though.

But to see it firsthand the other night opened his eyes to a plenty of things, none of which he needed to think of right at that moment- he wouldn’t want to go mad after all.

But he was going to anyway.

 It was maddening to see Itachi relaxing in the gentle arms of his newest charge though. To trust someone that implicitly was not normal for Itachi. What was even more maddening was the fact that they’d beat Shisui in reaching there.

The man had been distracted the entire night. He hadn’t even retaliated to Naruto and Sasuke piling vegetables into his plate and sneakily-to pre-genin standards anyway- dragging away all the meat into their plates.

(His charge, he observed, would merely use a subtle genjustsu to make them believe they were dragging meat away instead of the vegetables, and piling the meat into his charge’s plate from their own. The first time this had happened Mikoto-sama had a smile on her face- a genuine smile that wasn’t ever brought on by anyone outside of family.)

Even after dinner, when Haru and Mikoto-sama would wash and dry the dishes-the guy had taken over the entire household in just a week- he didn’t wait for Mikoto-sama to dry them. He washed and with a burst of chakra dried the dishes, and left Mikoto-sama standing there doing nothing. There was a slight concerned look in her eyes which only morphed into full blown concern when Shisui dropped by saying Tsunade was treating Itachi’s injuries.

An hour later when Fugaku had somehow managed to con Haru into a game of Shogi- _to test his strategic knowledge_ \- Haru had played distractedly seemingly with no strategy whatsoever, Fugaku gave up. But Kakashi did notice the man scan the entire board with the sharingan to show it to the Nara Head.

Talks among the Clan heads about the other half of Uchiha Clan walking away after Madara attacked the Village caused a lot of uproar in the right ways. They’d-the Wandering Clan- wanted peace and were desperate enough to get out of the Village to find it-which they had, with no other Villages finding them and surviving for nearly half a century. All the departments in the Village wanted his charge and were pressuring Fugaku and Mikoto into listing his skills- which had Mikoto saying _he is a wonderful partner in the kitchen_.(Haru really was. The coffee he made for Mikoto-sama first thing in the morning always had her humming with pleasure from the nice caffeine hit. He helped her around the house.) Fugaku couldn’t get away with that though as his intimidation skills were different from his wife’s; the way she exuded Killing Intent with the most pleasant smile on her face had even the most seasoned ANBU shivering with dread.  

Anyway back to his troublesome charge. As soon as the man shot up in the middle of the game, mumbling an excuse of needing air and walking out, it would have been extremely taxing on Kakashi’s body had he not been expecting the man’s straight out sprint which turned into a shunshin into the woods.

 He’d used his years of tracking experience to quickly come to the conclusion that Haru had been tracking Itachi. He noticed then that this troublesome assignment of his was also a very capable gifted tracker as he tracked Itachi in unfamiliar woods in only under 10 minutes.

Another talent in the List, apparently, he had quite a few. But currently sitting and watching the Nara Clan head decipher the newest Uchiha’s game grabbed all his attention. Fugaku wanted him there so he could retrace the entire game for Shikaku-san and if the approving noises he made were any indication –

“He was randomly moving the pieces, Fugaku. All the moves he’d made against you were by chance. He wasn’t playing with a clear head and was merely reacting to the plays you made. No offense, complete defense. I wouldn’t say he was a gifted strategist, just by this game. What was happening at that time anyway, in the house I mean?”

“Nothing was happening actually. He’d been distracted the entire night and he just up and left in the middle of the game and brought Itachi home from one of his sulk-fests,” Fugaku muttered, “ so if you say he was distracted by Itachi, then that would be accurate.”

“So, he’s been on one of _those_ missions again, huh? How long are you planning to let this go on, Fugaku?”

“As long as it takes for him to realize what I’m trying to teach him for the past three years,” the Uchiha mumbled.

“You are a troublesome father, my friend. One of these days Mikoto might actually kill you.”

There was a sympathetic glint to Shikaku’s eye and yet it disappeared the minute it had been noticed. If Fugaku was surprised by the address he didn’t let it show and merely accepted the look with stoicism. 

“Our clan is filled with self-righteous idiots who are stubborn to the core. This is the only way I can teach him what I want him to learn. Mikoto actually approves of this, even though she’s just as hurt by these missions as my idiotic son is.”

Shikaku only nodded and Kakashi had to wonder what it was the Uchiha Clan Head was trying to teach Itachi with the assassination missions, knowing how difficult it was to deal with Itachi later.

“What do you think, Kakashi, was on Haru-kun’s mind during the game?” Shikaku asked cautiously steering the conversation back to Haru.

“You’re wrong about it being only during the game, Shikaku-san. It was the entire night,” Kakashi muttered.

He let the silence drag for a second before continuing.

“I’d say he’d been distracted from the second Itachi stepped back into the Village.”

“You’re saying we have a -”

“He’s a sensor. Not a natural born one, I’m sure, but someone who’s trained himself to be one-”

“An Uchiha sensor-”

“-as it only took him ten minutes to find Itachi in his little boy-cave,” Kakashi continued as though he’d never been interrupted.

“Another thing to add to his list of his talents- right after the great partner in the kitchen thing,” Shikaku snickered. “You’re wife is a lot more troublesome than mine, Fugaku, and that’s saying something.”

Shikaku stretched and laid back on the floor of his home and Kakashi had to admit it was miracle to see two clan heads so laid back in each others’ homes. Fugaku himself was slouched on the pillow he was seated on, looking for the entire world like he would fall asleep sitting.

Maybe this was a side-effect to sitting with the Nara. They’d infect anyone and everyone with their sleepiness. He himself was sleepy or this could be the result of having an insomniac charge that had the habit of wandering the streets of Konoha at night.

!@#$%^^%$#@!

Haru found himself walking next to Mikoto to tea house where they would meet Nara Shikaku and his wife Yoshino. Haru quickly found out that in this Konoha, the Clan Heads seemed a lot more involved with each other. The Hokage visited one major clan for breakfast every Sunday- and he would be visting the Uchiha this Sunday. Something Haru was not looking forward to- having the shrewd Hokage, his overly perceptive wife and the troublesome blonde menace that was his son for an entire day, no he was definitely not looking forward to it. That would mean being in control of all of his expressions and words and Haru was just too tired of it. Three weeks in Konoha and he was already tired of everything.

How he wished to be back in the outside world.

Haru was sub-consciously aware of every single gaze on his back. He was tired of that too. But he’d learned enough patience in the past- or was it the future- and he cut his thoughts immediately knowing the headache he would have if he went on thinking about the semantics.

He couldn’t release the tension in his arms and his neck. He could feel the phantom pull of his joints and he sent a burst of chakra through his legs, earning a strange look from his mother-turned- landlord. Yet he was as relaxed as he could be.

Haru was 23 years old sure. But Uchiha Sasuke before his travel back to this timeline had been 42 and he spent 8 years in this timeline which made him 50, but his physical age was 23. His body surprised him. He felt all the urges of 23 year old more now, than back in his own timeline at the age of 23- and that was all kinds of screwed up. As soon as he entered this timeline and went to the Wandering Clan he knew he would never be able to survive being a 42 year old in the 15 year old body so Haru had buried his past self in the deepest corners of his mind and tried to do everything in his power not to think about the person he’d been before, the lovers he’d lost and the people, he’d sworn to protect but couldn’t. Those thoughts brought the proud-yet-beaten Uchiha to the surface and it took a hell of a lot to push him back and regain control- which was all the more tiring.

So tired of being tired all the time.

But it had also been a while since he’d been able to feel safe with someone. His mother just had a presence to her. The reason he’d discovered was because of the Killing Intent she constantly released. It was a really subtle thing that would scare anyone but it made messed up people like him feel safe. The last time he’d felt this relaxed was with Kisame, Mei and Zabuza when he’d helped with the Kiri revolution a couple of years ago. And two years on the run from Obito had him tired as hell and as tensed as could be which was a lot. He just didn’t want to face the man. He was angry enough as it is and killing Obito was not helpful to any of his plans, so he’d run.

Now that he thinks about it- as he walks with her- he realizes that Uchiha Haru was one tired mess of issues who couldn’t keep sleep no matter how exhausted he was. He was already sleeping on the outer porch instead of his room to ease his mind and remain closer to nature and the trees, but even that wasn’t working anymore. He’d be plagued with nightmares and sleep simply wasn’t worth the hassle. He’d been roaming the streets the last couple of nights to exhaust him enough to sleep and he was quickly losing his mind as the things that could lull him to sleep grew shorter every day. Kakashi was trying very hard to keep up with him and his guard was just as sleepless as Haru was. There was small comfort in that. Misery loves company after all.

No need to think of it now, he thought as he opened the door to the tea shop for Mikoto-sama to walk through.

He straight away spotted the Nara Clan Head and his wife at the back of the room. The strategic place at the window and the complete overview of the room; nothing would be invisible to the Clan Head.

He gathered every last shred of his control so he could once again play the game of I-know-a-lot-more-than-you-do-but-I-will-not-reveal-a-single-thing. He was tired of playing this game in his hometown and who was he kidding this Konoha had never been his hometown.

Mikoto-sama lowered herself to the pillow and he sat behind her in a show of deference when Mikoto pulled him to her side, making him sit right beside her. The implication was not lost on anyone and he cursed his Mother.

“So _you_ are the Uchiha Haru we’ve heard so much about,” Yoshino says, watching him as though he were a very rare bug. He hated this conversation already. “I don’t know what to say now that I’ve finally seen you.”

He didn’t smile- he wasn’t expected to- so he grunted an agreement which elicited a chuckle from Mikoto. “No need to be so sullen, Haru-kun. We’ve only ever said good things about you.”

“Can you really cook an entire meal unlike my lazy husband?” Yoshino asked next, which made Haru wonder just what was being said about him. His confusion must have been apparent in his eyes, because the Nara Clan Head who’d been observing the conversation jumped in.

“Mikoto here says you are a very good kitchen partner when asked about you. You are making us all look bad.”

Ah people were being nosy, asking around, scoping him out and he was bets were being made as to which division he’d end up in. He sighed inwardly, but he might as well have done it outside as Shikaku’s eyes sharpened. The man was analyzing him every step and he could nothing to stop him. Troublesome Nara and their troublesome intelligence.

Haru was reminded of Shikamaru when he looked at the Clan Head sitting across him and the cold calculating gaze of the Yamanaka Clan Head of his time. Going through war not once but twice and losing everything that ever mattered would do that to anyone. He shifted his gaze to the tea shop host as she started the ceremony.

They remained quiet through the process and only moved when the process was done. He left the sweets as they were and drank his tea despite it being bitter. He could feel Shikaku watching him and met his gaze.

“Something on your mind, Shikaku?” Mikoto asked looking through her lashes, which made her look disarmingly harmless, as it was supposed to, and Mikoto was anything but harmless.

Shikaku merely shook his head and went back to the tea alternating a couple of sweets every now and then. The conversation shifted to politics and he tuned them out. He’d dealt with enough politics and he definitely was not in the mood to deal with more. He could feel Shikaku watching him with something akin to disbelief and he wondered what it was.

It was only as he walked back to the compound with Mikoto-sama that he figured out what it had been. The tea house was something that only catered to the shinobi in the village because it served their customers poisoned tea to increase their tolerance to the more dangerous ones and Haru, being as exhausted as he was, hadn’t recognized the look of pure disbelief he’d received when he drank the tea without a hint of the poison making him uncomfortable. He was so tolerant to them at this point that he’d barely even thought of how odd it must have looked. The sweets contained small amounts of antidote that would allow their bodies to get used to it- keeping the worse effects at bay- and Haru in his distaste for anything sweet had declined the antidote.

No wonder people in the tea house had been giving him strangely alarmed looks.

“The tea was poisoned, wasn’t it, Mikoto-sama?” he asked quietly, feeling sheepish for even bringing it up.

“It was.”

“Do you want me to brew an antidote?”

“I don’t need it, Haru-kun. Neither do you from what I’ve observed,” she said with an amused glint to her eyes, which turned quickly into concern, “You’re more usually observant than this. Are you sleeping well?”

“I’ll survive, Mikoto-sama,” he muttered. It was a lie. He was sure Mikoto-sama picked up on that.

The Uchiha Matriarch nodded and he was grateful she’d let it go.

“Thank you for bringing Itachi home last night,” she said breaching the topic for the first time in the couple of days since the incident.

He inclined his head and replied, “He looked very troubled.”

“He was. It was the mission he was sent to,” the Uchiha matriarch says quietly.

He nodded and let it be.

He could very well imagine what mission it could have been with Itachi’s reaction and he was definitely not talking about it to Itachi.  His overtaxed mind was now forming all scenarios and reasons as to why they kept sending him on those missions. Being a parent, Haru’d discovered, made it very easy to understand the motives of another. He couldn’t do anything unless Itachi came to him and even then what he _could do_ would be limited.

Thinking of Itachi brought him back to thinking about his shadow. Hatake Kakashi-his former sensei- only ever left him alone when he was Mikoto and he was glad for even that small reprieve. Staying that close to his chakra signature everyday brought all kinds memories back and that worsened his insomnia.

Maybe he should find a way to spar with him, but then he quickly cut the thought out. He did not want to kill the man, after all. And right now with the way his body was adjusting he definitely would, if the right memories were to be triggered. He missed sparring with Kisame, the man could definitely wear him out enough for him to pass out of pure exhaustion. With more than half of his power sealed away because of the time-travel’s effect on his younger body-which he still hadn’t managed to unlock-he and the tailless beast were more or less on the same level. He needed to find a way to break the lock, but that had consequences on its own. Painful ones. Orochimaru had better hurry up with his task because Haru was losing more and more patience with each passing day.

He should probably contact him soon.


	6. Interlude: Uchiha Mikoto

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So its been a long time since I updated more than a year, I know. So here's a short interlude. I had to get something out as my writers' block was especially bad this time around. so tell me how it is

Uchiha Mikoto never had to take initiative in anything. Her sons and husband were more than ready to take up the initiative for her these days. It was so good of them to do it too. But none of that was helping her now, or specifically the newest addition of their home.

The boy was barely sleeping and that had been the case for nearly the entire he’s been at the compound.

  
She watched him now, as he listlessly pushed the food around in his plate. This was not good. The boy would soon be asked to participate in the jounin exams and the way he was now, he would definitely kill someone without meaning to. That was something by they had to avoid at all costs. The guy was slowly losing himself to the stress of insomnia too. He was tense all the time these days. Then there would be the times he would twitch in the way seasoned shinobi would- all their muscles loose, ready to attack- at simply the smallest noise Naruto would make.

This was not good at all. She had to act before Haru took it into his own hands.

!@#$%%$#@!

One afternoon of planning, twenty minutes of conversation and an hour of preparation later Mikoto would say a job well done as she took in the puppy pile in front of her.

Itachi, Shisui, Naruto and Sasuke had done a wonderful job of herding Haru.

Mikoto would be worried if this were someone else. The man was fast asleep-finally- with Naruto on top of him, Sasuke curling into Itachi and Itachi and Shisui bracketing the other three.

She didn’t let herself think of how quickly Haru had fallen asleep as the kids smothered him.

She walked on to the outer porch and stood there. Fugaku would find her, she thought. But who would find Haru, a small voice whispered to her ear, after all his insomnia is all because of a cold and lonely bed.

She shivered at the slight chill in the air and forced herself not to think of another time in the past where she herself had returned to a cold and lonely bed for months on end. The war times were something she preferred not to think about.

For now she was glad that her charge was getting at least one night of deep, undisturbed sleep. That was all she could do for now.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Tell me what you think:)


End file.
